The Supreme Court will hear petitions on the police action against student groups protesting the new citizenship law only when the violence stops, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said after the police crackdown was mentioned by senior lawyer Indira Jaising on Monday.
“Let the rioting stop (first),” Chief Justice Bobde said, responding to a request by Indira Jaising who wanted the top court to take cognisance of incidents at Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University.
“It is a very serious human rights violation all over the country,” Indira Jaising had said.
Chief Justice Bobde underlined that the violence would have to stop before the court could consider taking it up.
“Just because they happen to be students, it doesn’t mean they can take law and order in their hands, this has to be decided when things cool down. This is not the frame of mind when we can decide anything,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Bobde said, according to news agency ANI.
The country’s top judge said the court would determine the rights but not in the atmosphere of riots. “Let all of this stop and then we will take suo motu cognizance. We are not against rights and peaceful protests,” he said.
When another senior advocate Colin Gonsalves asked for a probe by retired Supreme Court judge, the CJI said, “We don’t want to see videos (when an advocate tells court that videos are there). If violence and destruction of public property continues, we will not hear it.”
The court is expected to hear the matter on Tuesday.
A petition was also moved in the Delhi High Court on Monday against the police action on students at Jamia university on Sunday night.
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar declined to list the plea for urgent hearing, saying there was “no urgency in the matter”.
Protesters torched four public buses and two police vehicles on Sunday as they clashed with police in New Friends’ Colony near Jamia university in south Delhi during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act, leaving six cops and two firemen injured, officials said.
The trouble started during a protest by students of Jamia Millia Islamia. But a students’ body later said they had nothing to do with the violence and arson and alleged that “certain elements” had joined in and “disrupted” the demonstration.
