SC Rejects Fresh Probe Plea In CJP Protest Case
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana heard the petition filed by L. Ramanathan: Reports
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking an independent and fair investigation into FIRs registered in connection with the Cockroach Janta Party-led protests at Jantar Mantar in July.
The court also declined a request to declare that police exercise sovereign and independent functions in maintaining law and order and investigating crimes, free from interference unless their actions violate the law.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana heard the petition filed by L. Ramanathan.
The plea named the Centre, the Delhi government, the Commissioner of Police, CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke and Shailendra Mani Tripathi, a PIL petitioner in the protest case, as respondents.
The CJP protests over the NEET paper leak in June and July led to the ouster of then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Advocate Mathews Nedumpara, appearing for Ramanathan, questioned judicial intervention through a PIL in the absence of the actual litigants. He said people approached the court as though it were their private property.
The CJI defended the court’s decision to invoke Article 142 of the Constitution to quash certain FIRs against protesters.
“There is no guarantee that we keep passing 100 percent correct orders. 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 come to court... You have not seen our order in the case of members of legislative assembly/Parliament,” he said.
Referring to a case involving politicians who staged a dharna in Himachal Pradesh and caused damage to public property, the CJI said the court had also considered the circumstances in which people reacted during the Covid crisis.
“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 High Court declined to quash (the FIRs), but we allowed, saying they are not hardened criminals,” he said.
The bench said the petition effectively sought a review of the order quashing FIRs under Article 142.
The petitioner had argued that police should enjoy an independent sphere of authority in maintaining law and order, investigating crimes and bringing offenders to justice, comparable to judicial independence.
The plea sought directions to the Centre, the Delhi government and city police to ensure that the investigation into the Jantar Mantar protest FIRs was conducted independently, fairly and in accordance with the law.