Supreme Court to hear contempt plea over Delhi metro curbs during CJP protest

The Supreme Court held a special Sunday sitting to hear pleas on Delhi transport curbs and detentions linked to the CJP protest. The hearing puts official action under scrutiny after alleged defiance of the court's earlier order and mass detentions.

In Short

• Bench said all lawyers would be heard to avoid public inconvenience
• Judges noted widespread grievance over Saturday's events and rejected trivialising concerns
• Petition cites October 9 order against complete shutdown of Delhi transport

The Supreme Court, in a special sitting on Sunday, said it would hear all lawyers while dealing with a plea seeking contempt proceedings against authorities for the alleged violation of its direction that there should be no “complete prohibition” on metro and train services in Delhi because of the CJP protest.

A bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said it would hear all parties and ensure that no inconvenience is caused. The court also said it was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy against the detention of political leaders.

During the hearing, the bench said, “We know you all are aggrieved by what happened yesterday. We are not here to trivialise what happened.” It added that the top court was always at the service of the nation.

The contempt plea was filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi. It named Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chairperson D Thara as respondents. The petition referred to the Supreme Court’s October 9 order, which was passed while hearing a separate plea against the closure of 57 metro stations and the cancellation of trains to Delhi in view of the protest.

The protest call had been given by the Cockroach Janta Party and some student organisations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the functioning of the Election Commission. On Saturday, the government stopped a planned mass mobilisation at Jantar Mantar after a security clampdown and the detention of more than 7,000 protesters, including CJP leader Abhijit Dipke, several opposition leaders and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee.

The special sitting followed the court’s earlier order on transport restrictions and came as it considered both the contempt plea and the habeas corpus petition arising from the action taken ahead of the CJP protest in Delhi.

- Ends