Delhi HC refuses to stop CJP’s Oct 16 protest at Connaught Place

Acting Chief Justice Nitin W Sambre noted that the Supreme Court is already hearing matters related to the protests and directed Puri to inform the apex court about the developments at 2:30 pm.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday, October 15, refused to restrain the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and its founder Abhijeet Dipke from holding a protest at the Connaught Place Central Park on October 16, even as it took on record the police’s assurance that all possible steps would be taken to regulate and control their activity.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma was hearing a plea by a Connaught Place vendor seeking a ban on the CJP protest scheduled for Friday, October 16, at Connaught Place in the national capital.

“This protest has to be stopped,” submitted senior advocate Sacchin Puri, representing Anil Kumar Gupta, who emphasised the need for an immediate interim measure. Puri said protests in Delhi’s business hub have caused massive disruption to normal life and traffic and mounting financial losses for shop owners.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma submitted that steps have been taken to control the CJP’s activities and assured that the apprehension of the petitioner would be taken care of.

The court took the assurance on record.

Even as the senior counsel for the petitioner urged the court to pass a “specific” direction restraining the CJP, the bench said, “Don’t insist. We have passed the order.”

The matter came up before the bench after it agreed to hear the petition on an urgent basis earlier in the day.

We are being targeted: Vendor

“In the heart of Connaught Place Central Park, a protest is called. It seems we are being targeted. This is not a site (for protest). They have already started shutting down. This is the Dussehra weekend. This protest has to be stopped,” the petitioner’s senior counsel had said while mentioning the matter in the morning.

Petitioner Gupta, a street vendor at Palika Bazar in Connaught Place, has filed a plea requesting court directions to restrain the CJP from holding agitations, demonstrations, marches or gatherings at Central Park, Connaught Place, or any non-designated venue.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police has informed the High Court that it will take “all possible measures” to control the protest on Friday.

CJP founder and national convener Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday, October 14, called on “patriots” to gather on Friday at Central Park in Connaught Place, with the national flag, alleging that its members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have been “jailed only for unfurling the tricolour.”

“We will show that waving a tiranga is not a crime,” Dipke said on X, and asked those who cannot come to Delhi to carry out “tiranga marches” in their cities. He expressed apprehension that he may also be jailed.

The call comes on a day when Das and Ranka were sent to five-day judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail for allegedly violating their peace bonds and trespassing into Jantar Mantar, which has been denotified as a protest area. The arrests have been widely criticised, with Amnesty International demanding the immediate release of the leaders and raising concern over “shrinking space for peaceful protest and dissent” in the country.