Delhi Metro chief apologises to Supreme Court as protest cases come up today

The chairperson of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has offered the Supreme Court an “unconditional apology” over the station closures of 10 October, as the court prepares to take up the petitions arising from the mass detentions during the protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday.

In an affidavit answering a contempt petition, DMRC chairperson D Thara said the court’s 9 October directions had been followed “in letter and spirit” and asked the court to discharge the contempt notice. The court had said on 11 October that a prima facie case of contempt was made out after it was told stations were still shut.

What the Metro says

The affidavit’s central claim is that there was never a complete shutdown. Delhi Police had asked for entry and exit to be closed at 57 stations; after the court intervened, the police cut the list to 45. The remaining 258 of the network’s 303 stations stayed fully open, and interchange facilities kept working at 14 of the closed ones, including Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat.

DMRC says there was “zero reduction in the total volume of metro operation”: 271 trains ran all 4,157 scheduled trips. Ridership still fell to about 32 lakh against roughly 58 lakh on a normal second Saturday, which the Metro put down to the protest keeping commuters at home. The restrictions were lifted at 10 pm that day.

The chairperson also argued that the 9 October directions were passed without hearing DMRC, which had neither been served nor appeared, and that the petitioners had misrepresented that public transport had stopped altogether.

New petitions on the pile

Two more pleas were filed on Wednesday. The Delhi Union of Journalists says reporters covering the protests on 10 and 11 October were detained, assaulted and stopped from recording, and that phones and cameras were taken. It challenges a Delhi Police advisory of 5 October that it says was used to turn away anyone without government accreditation or a press card. Senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta says in a signed statement that he was detained despite showing his PIB card. The union wants an independent, time-bound inquiry and protection for freelance and digital reporters.

Advocate Swaty Singh has challenged the Delhi Police order of 11 October that removed Jantar Mantar from the list of protest sites. “The right to protest is not merely a right to assemble at a designated physical space,” the petition says, arguing that the move clashes with the court’s 2018 ruling that a blanket ban on protests at Jantar Mantar and the Boat Club was impermissible. It is expected to be listed soon.

What the court will hear

The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana has a long list: habeas corpus and detention pleas, contempt petitions against senior officials, complaints by the two Supreme Court lawyers’ bodies, and the women journalists’ petition on which the Chief Justice wanted a senior police officer present. The government was given until Thursday to file its compliance report and its replies to the contempt pleas.