NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Saturday asserted that the judiciary would not “look the other way” when students’ fundamental right to hold peaceful protests is “infringed.”The CJI made the remarks during an “unfiltered interaction” with students at Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) in Patna. According to a university statement, he told the students that he preferred a “frank question-and-answer session.“During the interaction, a student asked the CJI about the “police response to peaceful students’ protests”.According to the statement, CJI Kant told the student that “courts will not look the other way” in cases involving alleged police brutality. He also “unequivocally reaffirmed the judiciary’s commitment to protecting students’ peaceful right to protest.”The reference was to the Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi against the NEET exam paper leaks, spearheaded by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a youth pressure group. The CJP began as a satirical online campaign following the CJI’s “cockroaches” remark in the Supreme Court, which he later clarified had been reported out of context.
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A CJP-called march to Parliament on July 20 ended in clashes between protesters and Delhi Police and other security forces. The protests were called off on July 25 after then-Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, fulfilling the CJP’s principal demand. The group had also sought an assurance that no student who participated in the demonstrations would be booked.On September 1, a CJI-led bench quashed the FIRs registered in connection with the July 20 clashes after the Centre and state governments assured the Supreme Court that cases against the protesters would not be pursued and no fresh FIRs would be registered over the same incidents.The order, however, does not apply to 2,873 people with criminal backgrounds who were identified at the Jantar Mantar demonstrations.(With PTI inputs)