NEW DELHI: “Don’t drag the court into all this,” the Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya said categorically on Tuesday while refusing a petitioner’s request to urgently list the plea, which alleged excessive use of force by the Delhi Police against the protesters who participated in the Cockroach Janta Party’s Parliament march on Monday.
The bench, which also included Justice Tejas Karia, made the remark in response to a lawyer’s oral mentioning of the petition and said that the matter would be listed for hearing on Wednesday, the day designated for hearing PILs in the high court. The petition claims that due to the lathicharge and use of tear gas by the police, several protestors suffered serious injuries.
Students and activists from across the country gathered at Jantar Mantar and on other parts of central Delhi on Monday to join the protest march called by the CJP.
The party had also accused the Delhi Police of using excessive force against protesters to prevent them from reaching Parliament, alleging that several students were injured and activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali J Angmo was pushed around. The Delhi
Police, however, denied that Angmo was assaulted, terming the reports “completely false and misleading”.
The protestors had planned to march to Parliament, but the Delhi Police intervened and prevented the same, said the plea. The high court bench, meanwhile, adjourned a petition filed by former JNU Students’ Union President Aishe Ghosh claiming police surveillance of the CJP protesters at Jantar Mantar.
The bench adjourned the matter after the petitioner’s lawyer sought an adjournment today and urged for a short date. The matter is likely to be heard later in the week.
