JNU row: Supreme Court agrees to give urgent hearing to plea on court scuffle

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to give an urgent hearing tomorrow to a plea seeking action against those involved in thrashing journalists and JNU students and teachers in the Patiala House court complex where a student union leader was to be produced.

The petition filed by N D Jaiprakash, an alumnus of JNU, who was hurt in the violence on Monday, sought action against the people involved in the violence and over "inaction" on the part of Delhi Police.

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The petition, which was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief J T S Thakur by senior advocate Indira Jaising, also demanded that the security measures in the court complex should be such that no person becomes victim of violence.

Read: Probing JNU case from all angles: Delhi police

The petition said the violence witnessed in the court not only endangered the life of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a case of sedition, but also prevented journalists from carrying out their work of reporting court proceedings.

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It said the Kanhaiya will be produced in court again on expiry of his police remand.

The petition also sought a direction to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Delhi Police to take all preventive action so that no such violence takes place either inside the court room or within the court complex as such type of activities in the court complex put the life of the accused in peril.

Read: Court scuffle: Charge of police's inaction being probed, says Delhi top cop

Hundreds of journalists held a protest march against the attack on mediapersons covering the hearing of a sedition case in which the JNU students' union president has been arrested and demanded that the culprits be brought to book.

The scribes, representing various journalist bodies, took out a march from the Press Club to the Supreme Court raising slogans in support of freedom of expression and against alleged police inaction during the incident yesterday.

Read: A group of people hit me, my action was 'natural': BJP MLA

A delegation of journalists also met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and sought a thorough probe into the incident and strict action against those involved in the assault at the Patiala House Court Complex.

The journalists questioned the "silence of police" over the attack on students and scribes and dubbed it an insult to the judiciary as the incident took place inside a court complex.

Read: Lawyers attack JNU students, scribes in Patiala House court complex

Journalists, students and teachers of JNU were beaten up allegedly by groups of lawyers, drawing criticism from the press amidst calls for the Home Ministry to look into the "dereliction of duty" by police, which has been accused of being a "mute spectator" during the incident.

The journalist bodies said it was a matter of "great concern" that attacks on mediapersons are "going up".

Read: Rahul Gandhi condemns attack on journalists in Delhi, calls it 'very wrong'

Police have said two FIRs have been registered against unnamed persons in connection with the attack.

Attacking Delhi Police over its inaction when journalists and JNU students were being thrashed in the court complex, AAP dubbed them "deaf and dumb", and asked why no action was taken against BJP MLA O P Sharma for his alleged involvement in the assault.

The party also questioned why the police was not checking the video in which JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been arrested on sedition charges, was talking in favour of following the Constitution.

"The Delhi Police has become deaf and dumb since yesterday. It has taken no action against BJP MLA O P Sharma who is seen assaulting JNU students and journalists and terrorising them," AAP leader Sanjay Singh said.

Earlier, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said the alleged negligence on the part of police is being probed and the guilty will face legal action.

Singh also noted that those who raised anti-India slogans during the event have not been arrested yet and demanded an independent probe into who those people were.

"There were anti-India slogans in JNU and those who gave those slogans have not been arrested yet. There should be an independent probe into this, on who these people were whose faces were masked and which party they belong to," he said.

The AAP leader also accused BJP and RSS of "tarnishing" the image of JNU.

"JNU has given the country several IAS and IPS officers, thinkers and academicians and the BJP and the RSS are tarnishing the image of a reputed organisation. There are many in Delhi Police who are from JNU and I urge them to stand up against the campaign to defame the varsity," he said.

Singh also lashed out at BJP for "hobnobbing" with PDP leaders who consider Afzal Guru as "martyr" and not a terrorist involved in the attack on Parliament. "The BJP on one hand talks about nationalism, but it is hobnobbing with the PDP to form government in Jammu and Kashmir...the same PDP, which considers Afzal Guru a martyr and not a terrorist.

"This reflects the dual standards of the BJP on nationalism," he said.