Plea before top court to allow protests at Jantar Mantar

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to assist it in a case filed by an NGO seeking to allow demonstrations in Central Delhi, including Jantar Mantar, where protests were banned after the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order.

A bench of justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked for additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta’s opinion after the petitioner said several areas in Central Delhi had been earmarked as no-protest zones.

The petition does not directly challenge the NGT order that stopped all demonstrations and protest-oriented activities on the Jantar Mantar road stretch. The bench also pointed this fact and asked the petitioner’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan if the plea was indirectly assailing the NGT order without questioning it directly.

“We cannot take cognizance of a matter that has not been challenged,” the court said. At this, Bhushan submitted that an appeal to the NGT order will be filed later but the present peti- tion raised issues that were never before the NGT.

He said the case before the court dealt with a larger issue, which is the fundamental right to protest.

He argued that apart from Jantar Mantar, there are other areas in Central Delhi where demonstrations were allowed earlier but have gradually been restricted.

According to him, the police impose section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC), which prohibits a gathering of four or more persons in an area where the law is invoked, to restrict demonstrations.

When the bench told Bhushan that the restrictions were mainly due to heavy traffic, the lawyer said there can be regulation of vehicular movement.

He said guidelines can be issued to regulate processions but not prohibit them completely.

The bench then asked Mehta to consider whether or not traffic in these areas can be regulated as suggested by Bhushan and told him to place his views within four weeks.