Lawyers seek action over INDIA bloc crowd in Supreme Court as FIRs name Rahul Gandhi

The Supreme Court will hear pleas on Thursday over the crowd that gathered inside its premises on Monday evening, when INDIA bloc leaders and their supporters entered the court complex at the end of their march against the Election Commission.

Senior advocates Gaurav Bhatia and Mahesh Jethmalani mentioned the petitions, filed by lawyers, before Chief Justice Surya Kant on Tuesday morning and asked for an urgent hearing. The Chief Justice agreed to list them on Thursday, 15 October, the same day the court takes up the petitions over the Delhi protest detentions.

Four FIRs, police sources say

Delhi Police have not issued a statement on the cases, but police sources said on Tuesday that four FIRs had been registered over the march: two at Tilak Marg police station and one each at Mandir Marg and Barakhamba Road. Earlier reports had put the count at two.

The cases allege that the march defied prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), that protesters used a mini-truck to push through barricades, and that graffiti was painted on roads in central Delhi. The Tilak Marg FIR relates to the protesters who entered the court premises and names INDIA bloc leaders, including Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The full list of those named has not been made public.

A contempt plea over posts on the Chief Justice

A separate petition filed on Tuesday by four advocates asks the court to begin criminal contempt proceedings against the Congress, Rahul Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

It cites a post on Monday from the X handle of the Congress’s Keralam unit, addressed to the Chief Justice: “Dear Surya Kant, If law and order is not your domain, resign now. We will find your replacement who can handle it.” The unit later deleted the post. The petition also cites a post by Moitra the same evening: “Surya clearly Can’t. So we will.” It wants guidelines barring political parties from running public campaigns against judges over pending cases.

The march and the main case

The “March for Democracy” set off from the Constitution Club on Monday afternoon and was stopped at a barricade on Bhagwan Dass Road. Gandhi, Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar were among the leaders present when the group later went into the court complex. The Congress put the turnout at 2.5 lakh.

The bloc wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and its leaders filed a writ petition on Monday evening seeking a stay on the exercise. The court passed no order on it on Tuesday.

Gandhi had not backed down on Monday. “You cannot beat us, threaten us, frighten us,” he said after the march. The BJP called it political theatre. “This is baseless... They are lying. The Supreme Court has already ruled on the constitutionality of SIR,” said national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan.

What comes next

Thursday’s hearing will bring the lawyers’ pleas, the detention and contempt petitions and the journalists’ cases before the court together. No date has been reported for the contempt plea against the Congress leaders.