Lawyers, journalists and DYFI take Delhi protest detentions to Supreme Court

Lawyers, journalists and a Rajya Sabha MP have gone to the Supreme Court over the detentions in Delhi during last weekend’s protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The court will take up the detention and contempt matters on Tuesday, 13 October.

The petitions add to the case the court opened at a special Sunday sitting, when it ordered Metro and internet services restored and said peaceful, unarmed people could not be detained outside the law.

The Bar goes to court

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) says advocates, among them senior advocates, women lawyers and senior citizens, were manhandled near the court on 10 October and “forcibly placed in police vehicles and taken away without being informed of the grounds for their detention.” It wants a status report on the detentions, the officers involved and the chain of command, the full prohibitory order issued under Section 163 of the BNSS, and preservation of CCTV and body-camera footage. It also wants clear access routes to the Supreme Court and Delhi’s other courts.

The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) has asked for an independent, time-bound inquiry. Its petition says Senior Advocate Shadan Farasat was carried away by his arms and legs, that women advocates were handled by policewomen without name tags, and that detained lawyers were taken to the Yamuna Sports Complex. “The right to assemble peacefully and express dissent cannot be rendered illusory,” it says.

What the Chief Justice said

The matters were mentioned before Chief Justice Surya Kant on Monday morning. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said no Section 163 order had been made public and asked the bench to urge police restraint. “There are videos which I will show tomorrow,” he said.

The Chief Justice said lawyers were free to protest and asked that the court be kept out of the politics.

Every lawyer, every member of the bar has the right to be a part of the peaceful protests.

“There should not be any impediment in the movement of lawyers, litigants, court staff. They should be allowed to work,” he said. “I have appealed to protesters also. All political parties also... The Supreme Court should not be dragged into this.”

SCBA president Pradeep Rai made a similar point. “Parties should not interfere in our domain,” he said. Later in the day the SCBA and SCAORA both passed resolutions condemning calls on social media for the Chief Justice to resign.

Journalists and DYFI

Two journalists’ bodies, the Free Speech Collective and the Network of Women in Media, India, say reporters were detained and dragged on 10 and 11 October even while showing press cards. “The use of force against a journalist is not a collateral consequence of crowd control,” the Free Speech Collective’s petition says. It wants binding guidelines for policing of the press at protests.

Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim, national president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, says DYFI members picked up at Connaught Place on 11 October were held for about seven hours in vehicles with curtained windows, assaulted, and released at Surajmal Stadium without arrest memos. He has asked for a court-monitored inquiry.

What happens on Tuesday

Also due on Tuesday is the contempt plea against the Union Home Secretary, the Delhi Police Commissioner and the head of the Delhi Metro, along with petitions on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The Chief Justice has indicated that the INDIA bloc’s new petition, filed on Monday by Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders and seeking a halt to the SIR in all states, could be heard with those pending cases.