The Delhi High Court has declined an immediate hearing on a petition by a Connaught Place restaurant owner seeking compensation for alleged losses during a protest and restrictions on an announced gathering at Central Park. The bench directed that the matter be listed alongside other connected petitions.
The petition was mentioned before Acting Chief Justice Nitin Vasudev Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma by advocate Umang Tyagi. It has been filed on behalf of Ayush Chopra through advocates Umang Tyagi, Sanyam Dahiya and Zuber Ali.
According to the petition, Chopra’s family has operated the Meenar Restaurant in New Delhi’s Connaught Place since 1 July 2017. The restaurant is located around 700 metres from Central Park, where a gathering was announced amid protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The petition states that the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, referred to as CJP, appealed on 14 October to people to assemble at Connaught Place’s Central Park at 5 pm on 16 October. The restaurant owner has asked the court to direct the authorities not to permit the gathering or any other unauthorised protest or assembly in the Connaught Place market, and to prevent such events from taking place.
The plea also seeks an assessment of the losses suffered by the petitioner and other affected people during the protest on 10 October. It asks that those responsible be directed to provide compensation for the damage, according to the report.
The matter places two separate concerns before the court: the administration of public gatherings in a busy commercial district and the mechanism for assessing losses claimed by businesses during protests. The petition seeks directions to the relevant authorities, but the report does not indicate that the court has granted either of the requested forms of relief.
The court’s direction to list the petition with related matters means that the plea will be considered alongside other connected cases rather than through an immediate hearing. The next listing date and any response from the authorities were not specified in the report.
