The Delhi High Court has allowed urgent listing of pleas by lawyers’ and traders’ associations challenging restrictions imposed around protests in the capital, including barricades and limits on access to designated protest sites. The petitioners have claimed that traders suffered losses of Rs 2,000 crore because of the curbs.
Senior advocate Sacchin Puri, appearing for the petitioners, told the court that the applicants were seeking implementation of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for designated protest sites. “All we want is implementation of the SOP, of what has already been put in place by the Supreme Court… we are only seeking implementation of our basic rights,” Puri said, according to the proceedings reported by The Indian Express.
The matter was initially opposed on the ground that the Supreme Court was already dealing with petitions connected to the protests. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma subsequently did not object to the Delhi High Court hearing the pleas. The High Court is scheduled to hear the petitions on Tuesday.
The dispute comes after protests were held over the past week in Central and South Delhi by the Cockroach Janta Party, Left student groups and parties, and Opposition leaders. The demonstrators have been demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. These allegations are part of the protesters’ demands and have not been adjudicated in the proceedings described in the report.
The Delhi Police imposed stringent restrictions after denying permission for protests at Jantar Mantar. Hundreds of people, including students, Opposition leaders and advocates from the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court, were detained after turning up for demonstrations, the report said. The petitioners have also argued that Jantar Mantar was closed and that no alternative protest location had been designated for a particular day.
The case places several urban functions in the same legal dispute: public access to a designated protest venue, police management of demonstrations, the movement of people through central Delhi and the effect of temporary restrictions on nearby commerce. The claimed Rs 2,000-crore loss is a submission by the traders and has not been independently established in the material available for this report.
The High Court is also likely to hear a plea by National Students’ Union of India president Vinod Jakhar seeking a probe into the alleged assault of protesters by “anti-social elements” at Jantar Mantar on October 10. A separate plea concerning the functioning of protest sites may also come up.
On Monday, Acting Chief Justice Nitin Sambre had declined to list two pleas immediately, citing the pendency of petitions relating to the ongoing protests before the Supreme Court. The pleas were to be listed on Tuesday after the court indicated that the matter could be taken up then. The next hearing will determine how the High Court addresses the requests concerning the SOP, protest locations and the restrictions affecting public movement and businesses.
