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Supreme Court wants senior police officer in court over women journalists' plea
Detention and contempt cases over the Delhi protests were put off to Thursday as a judge was unwell. The Chief Justice said police would have to explain the journalists' allegations.
Key points
- Chief Justice Surya Kant asked for a senior Delhi Police officer to be present to answer the women journalists' allegations.
- The detention and contempt petitions over the protests were put off to 15 October because Justice V Mohana was unwell.
- The government got two more days to file its compliance report and replies to the contempt pleas.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked for a senior Delhi Police officer to appear before it and explain allegations that women journalists were manhandled and sexually harassed by police while covering the protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
“We’d like some senior officer to remain present here and explain,” Chief Justice Surya Kant said when senior advocate Indira Jaising mentioned a petition by the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI). The case will be heard on Thursday, 15 October, with the other petitions arising from the protests.
What the journalists say
Women reporters covering the protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls say they were manhandled, detained and stopped from working even after they identified themselves as press. On 3 October, three women journalists accused police personnel of sexual harassment while they were held at a protest near Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police have said those complaints were sent to the Crime Branch for an inquiry, and the National Human Rights Commission has asked the Police Commissioner for a report.
“This pertains specifically to women journalists facing sexual harassment during the course of protests,” Jaising told the court. The NWMI wants binding guidelines for how police deal with journalists at protests, an independent inquiry and action against officers found responsible.
Senior advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and C U Singh mentioned similar pleas, including a contempt petition by the Free Speech Collective alleging that journalists were assaulted in breach of the court’s earlier orders.
The main cases wait two days
The larger set of petitions over the mass detentions of 10 and 11 October did not go ahead. Justice V Mohana, one of the three judges on the bench with the Chief Justice and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, was unwell, and the parties agreed to take the matters up on Thursday.
At the request of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the court gave the government until then to file its compliance report on the court’s earlier directions on Metro and rail services, and its replies to the contempt petitions. One contempt plea names the Union Home Secretary, the Delhi Police Commissioner and the Delhi Metro chief.
The list for Thursday is long. It includes a habeas corpus plea by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy over the detention of political leaders, a petition by RJD MP Manoj Jha that cites more than 6,000 detentions, pleas by the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Advocates-on-Record Association over the treatment of lawyers, and a petition by Rajya Sabha MP A A Rahim over DYFI members. Pleas by lawyers over the crowd that gathered inside the court complex after Monday’s INDIA bloc march will also be heard that day.
Lawyers keep up the pressure
At 1:15 pm, members of the two Supreme Court lawyers’ bodies gathered at the court’s Media Park and observed a minute’s silence for colleagues who they say were mistreated by police during the protests. Lawyers also protested outside the Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru.
At its special sitting on Sunday, a bench of Justices Bagchi and Mohana had said nobody should be detained “except in accordance with the procedure established by law”, particularly people in peaceful, unarmed gatherings, and that lawyers and journalists must not be stopped from doing their work. On Thursday the full bench will hear the government’s response to those directions.