PoliticsCourts
Neha Bora says AISA will not sign peace bonds after Delhi High Court turns down her plea
Justice Subramonium Prasad refused to quash the ₹10,000 bond notice but told the magistrate to hand over the material behind it first. A day later, the AISA president called signing such bonds 'signing away' the right to dissent.
Key points
- The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed Neha Bora's plea against a ₹10,000 peace bond notice.
- The judge told the magistrate to give her all the material relied on before ordering any enquiry.
- Bora said on Saturday that AISA will not sign peace bonds and will keep challenging them.
Neha Bora, national president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), said on Saturday that her organisation would not sign peace bonds, a day after the Delhi High Court refused to quash the notice asking her to do so.
“Signing such peace bonds is a principally wrong decision for us,” Bora told a press conference in New Delhi. “It is no less than signing away our democratic right to dissent.”
On Friday evening, Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed her challenge to a 17 October notice from a Special Executive Magistrate. It asked her to execute a personal bond of ₹10,000, with one surety, to keep the peace while an enquiry is held. The judge said there were “adequate safeguards” and directed the magistrate “to take care” that Bora is given all the material relied on before any order is passed. A detailed order is awaited.
Bora was detained at Mandi House on 16 October during a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and held overnight at R K Puram police station. The notice accused her of sloganeering and of repeated protests near Jantar Mantar in defiance of prohibitory orders.
In court, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said the protest had been peaceful and she had never called for violence. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, for the police, called the protesters “lumpen elements in the nerve of New Delhi” and said the magistrate could not ignore six FIRs against her.
Bora read the ruling as a limit on the magistrate. “The court has said that SEM can’t make (people) sign anything by issuing show cause notices,” she said. “The peace cannot be only for the government, but also for the people.” Of the protests, she said: “The violence came from the side of the police.”
The case now goes back to the magistrate, who must first share the material behind the notice.