NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking an investigation of the FIRs registered by the Delhi Police against student protesters over the July Jantar Mantar protests, observing that the petitioner was essentially seeking a review of the Court’s earlier order quashing the FIRs.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing a PIL filed by L Ramanathan who argued that there cannot be any judicial interference in the police functions, as they are “independent and sovereign”. Notably, the petition was filed before the Court passed the September 1 order quashing the FIRs.
Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara, appearing for the petitioner, questioned the maintainability of public interest litigation in the absence of actual litigants, remarking that people approached the Court as though it were their “private property”.
The Chief Justice explained that the Court had exercised its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to quash the FIRs after considering the circumstances of the student protesters and their future.
“You say we should not have invoked Article 142 and quashed FIRs. Please appreciate, these are young students. We have to see their parents, their future. We don’t want them to have to come to court,” the CJI observed.
The CJI also referred to a recent order which quashed the criminal cases in Himachal Pradesh over public protests held during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In Himachal Pradesh, they sat on dharna, they caused loss to public property. But when there was COVID, people of this country were not ready to face this kind of crisis, so people reacted in a way they could react,” the CJI remarked. The Chief Justice noted that while the High Court had declined to quash the FIRs, the Supreme Court had intervened after considering that the protesters were young students and not hardened criminals.
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