The Delhi Police’s decision to denotify Jantar Mantar as a protest site has shifted demonstrations to three larger grounds, but it has also exposed a deeper problem in Delhi’s public-space policy: the capital has designated places for assembly without ensuring that they are equally accessible, available or operationally suitable for citizens seeking to protest.
A standing order issued by Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar on October 12 removed Jantar Mantar from the list of designated protest venues. Ramlila Maidan, CBD Ground in Shahdara and Burari Ground in north-west Delhi have been identified as alternatives. The decision comes as student organisations, youth groups and INDIA bloc leaders have held demonstrations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with thousands detained for unlawful assembly in and around the Jantar Mantar and Central Delhi areas, according to The Hindu.
The immediate administrative argument is one of crowd management. Jantar Mantar is located close to Parliament, government offices, commercial areas and major central Delhi roads. Its use as a protest venue has long created tensions involving traffic, noise, crowd control and prolonged sit-ins. The National Green Tribunal raised concerns about these issues in 2017, while the Supreme Court held in July 2018 that public protests could not be completely banned. Following that order, the Delhi Police permitted demonstrations at Jantar Mantar subject to a limit of 1,000 people.
The new arrangement therefore does not simply replace one ground with three others. It changes the geography of political expression in Delhi. A protest venue is not only an open plot of land. Its practical value depends on location, public transport, proximity to the institution being addressed, cost, booking rules, available dates and the ability of different groups to use it at short notice.
### Three grounds, three different constraints
Ramlila Maidan is the closest alternative, located about four kilometres from Jantar Mantar. Spread over more than 12 acres, it has been an important site for political meetings and public events for decades. It is managed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which handles its bookings and general administration. The ground also hosts cultural events, including Ramlila and Dussehra celebrations.
Its historical importance is considerable. Syama Prasad Mookerjee launched a satyagraha there in 1952, and Jawaharlal Nehru addressed large public meetings at the ground in 1956 and 1957. A permanent stage was built there during Queen Elizabeth II’s visit in 1962. This history makes Ramlila Maidan a recognisable public assembly space, but historical prominence does not automatically make it an effective substitute for a smaller, more immediate protest venue.
Availability is already a major constraint. Officials told news agency PTI that Ramlila Maidan had no free dates for the next two and a half months, except December 29, 30 and 31. The reported booking rate is ₹50,000 a day, with a refundable security deposit of ₹55,000. Including taxes, the initial outlay for a day’s booking is about ₹1.21 lakh. Civic officials have said that a small portion of the ground is available free for gatherings of up to 150 people.
These rules create a sharp difference between formal designation and practical access. Jantar Mantar had no booking charge, while Ramlila Maidan requires advance planning, payment and a confirmed date. A protest that is triggered by a court order, policy announcement or political development may not fit easily into a venue system built around scheduled events. The Hindu had also reported in 2017 that only one party could book the venue at a time, raising questions about how multiple organisations could demonstrate there simultaneously.
CBD Ground is about 13 kilometres from Jantar Mantar and is maintained by the Delhi Development Authority. Located in Shahdara’s busy commercial area, it covers about 12 acres and is adjoining Vikas Marg, an arterial road linking the Trans-Yamuna area with central Delhi through the ITO Bridge. The site provides a larger physical setting than Jantar Mantar, but its location also places traffic and neighbourhood impacts at the centre of the administrative question.
Burari Ground is the largest and farthest of the three alternatives. Also known as Nirankari Ground, it covers 50 acres and is around 15 kilometres from the former protest site. It is managed by the Delhi Development Authority and is bounded by Dr K. B. Hedgewar Marg and Shah Alam Band Marg. The ground already hosts cultural and political programmes.
Its size makes it suitable for large gatherings, but distance changes the character of participation. The report does not establish how protesters will reach the ground, what transport arrangements will apply, or how quickly the site can be made available. Those unanswered operational details matter because the usefulness of a protest site depends not only on its capacity but also on whether participants, journalists, legal observers and affected citizens can reach it without disproportionate difficulty.
### Delhi’s capacity-based model
The current arrangement follows an older capacity-based approach. A 2003 Delhi Police standing order stated that Jantar Mantar could be used for gatherings of fewer than 5,000 people. Demonstrations between 5,000 and 50,000 people were to be directed to Ramlila Maidan, while gatherings above 50,000 were to be moved to Burari. Larger events were to be guided towards Narela, according to a 2026 report in The Hindu.
This system treats protest primarily as a question of crowd volume. That is an important administrative concern, but it leaves out other dimensions of public assembly. A small gathering may still need to be close to Parliament, a ministry, a court or another institution. A large ground may offer space but lack immediate visibility. A venue may be technically open but unavailable because it is booked for cultural or political events. A site may also be free but difficult for participants to reach.
The Supreme Court’s 2018 position adds a constitutional dimension to this administrative framework. The court did not hold that demonstrations could take place anywhere or without regulation. It did, however, hold that public protests could not be completely banned. The policy challenge is therefore to regulate assembly while preserving a meaningful opportunity to exercise it.
Denotifying Jantar Mantar changes that balance because the site had become a known and relatively accessible point for demonstrations. The reported detention of Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das, Ajinkya Shinde and Ashutosh Ranka on October 13 illustrates the immediate consequences of the change. The leaders were detained while attempting to enter the area, and a senior Delhi Police officer told The Hindu that protesters had entered through eateries and food stalls near the former protest site. The officer said that demonstrations at Jantar Mantar were now illegal and that further action was under way.
The episode shows that a site’s status is not merely a matter of signage or booking records. It determines what conduct is lawful, where police intervention begins and how organisations must plan their mobilisation. For citizens, the difference between a designated site and a prohibited site can become clear only when they arrive at the location and encounter enforcement.
### The public-space question
Delhi’s protest-site debate is ultimately a public-space and governance question. The three designated grounds are controlled by different institutions: the Municipal Corporation of Delhi manages Ramlila Maidan, while the Delhi Development Authority manages CBD Ground and Burari Ground. The Delhi Police determines the regulatory framework and enforces restrictions. This division of responsibility makes coordination central to the policy’s success.
The supplied report does not specify a common booking mechanism, standard notice period, emergency access procedure or unified public calendar for the three venues. It also does not establish how conflicts between protests, cultural events and political programmes will be resolved. These gaps are significant because a multi-venue system requires more than a list of locations. It requires transparent rules that can be understood and used by organisations with different levels of money, administrative capacity and political access.
The reported cost and availability of Ramlila Maidan make this particularly visible. A venue may have sufficient area but remain inaccessible to smaller organisations if the booking fee, deposit or waiting period is too high. A ground may also be physically open while functionally unavailable because it has been reserved for another event. The free section for gatherings of up to 150 people addresses only a limited part of that problem.
At CBD Ground, the central issue is different. Its location in a densely developed commercial area means that demonstrations could affect businesses, residents and traffic on Vikas Marg. At Burari, the concern is scale and distance. The three grounds therefore distribute different costs across the city: financial and scheduling barriers at Ramlila, local disruption at CBD, and travel distance at Burari.
The policy’s effectiveness will depend on how these trade-offs are handled in practice. The report establishes that Jantar Mantar has been denotified, that three alternatives have been identified and that enforcement has already begun. It does not yet establish whether the replacement system will provide comparable access to demonstrations, how bookings will be prioritised or whether additional venues will be notified for different crowd sizes and types of events.
For Delhi, the larger urban question is whether public assembly is being planned as part of the city’s civic infrastructure or treated mainly as a security and traffic-management problem. Roads, grounds and administrative permissions are all involved, but they serve different public functions. Managing congestion is a legitimate concern; so is preserving a practical route for citizens to make their demands visible.
The immediate developments to watch are the implementation of the new standing order, the availability of Ramlila Maidan, the use of CBD and Burari grounds for upcoming demonstrations, and the manner in which Delhi Police handles groups that attempt to gather at Jantar Mantar. The evidence currently shows a clear administrative shift, but the accessibility and capacity of the replacement model remain to be tested.
