Supreme Court appointed interlocutors Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran on Monday submitted their report on the ongoing protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Southeast Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh to the top court.
The report was submitted in sealed cover before the bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph.
The court said that it will examine the report but refused to give a copy of it to the petitioners stating that the report “will not be put in record”
The case will now be heard on February 26.
The protest at Shaheen Bagh began on December 15 last year and has continued since then, blocking a major road.
The top court had appointed the interlocutors last Monday to speak to the protesters to find ways to end a roadblock at the protest site. Among other demands, protesters in Shaheen Bagh have told them that they want the apex court to guarantee their safety before one carriageway on Road 13A is opened up. They also asked that the police withdraw cases filed against residents of Jamia Nagar for protests against the CAA on December 15 last year.
Former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah had earlier told the Supreme Court that the protest was peaceful and inconvenience being caused to commuters was due to barricades “unnecessarily” put by police on roads around Shaheen Bagh away from the protest site.
The Supreme Court had earlier said that while people have a fundamental right to protest “peacefully and lawfully”, the blocking of a public road at Shaheen Bagh as it might lead to a “chaotic situation”.
Habibullah, in his affidavit, has also stated that the protestors have asked him to convey to the apex court that their dissent “was out of desperation and compulsion” as they see the CAA, National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) as a “death knell” for their and future generations’ survival and existence.
The Delhi Police have imposed restrictions on the Kalindi Kunj-Shaheen Bagh stretch of the road and the Okhla underpass, which were closed on December 15 last year after the protests against CAA and the NRC began.
Former BJP MLA Nand Kishore Garg has filed a plea in the apex court seeking directions to authorities to remove protestors from Shaheen Bagh and reopen the road.
