The Supreme Court will hold a special hearing today, Sunday, October 11. The subject is the Delhi protest detentions of Saturday, when thousands were picked up during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. A bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana will hear the matter.
Here is the short version. On October 10, Delhi Police detained thousands of people who tried to reach Jantar Mantar for a protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and other groups. Police had refused permission for the gathering. Now the court will look at two questions: were the detentions legal, and did the shutdown of metro and train services break the court’s own order from October 9?
What the detentions looked like
Police sources put the number at nearly 2,500 protesters detained across the capital on Saturday, the Hindu reported. On top of that, about 1,000 people were picked up overnight in preventive operations before the protest day began.
One police update cited in the Hindu’s live blog put the figure even higher: over 5,000 detained across Delhi by 2 pm. The numbers do not match exactly. That is normal in a fast-moving story like this. But even the lowest estimate means this was one of Delhi’s biggest detention drives in recent years.
Most of those held were let go by Saturday night, according to NDTV. The exceptions, it reported, were CJP’s top leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee. Dipke, Das and Ranka were stopped at Delhi airport right after their flight landed from Mumbai. Rathee was picked up from his home in Gurugram. The three CJP leaders were to be produced before a magistrate, the Hindu reported on Sunday morning.
Who was picked up
The detention list reads like a who’s who of opposition politics. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was detained from South Avenue in central Delhi, along with several Trinamool Congress MPs. Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was detained outside his home. Former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar were also picked up, the Hindu’s live coverage reported.
Others included CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby, veteran Left leader Brinda Karat, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, according to a PTI update carried by DT Next.
A word on the term you will keep hearing: preventive detention. It means the police can hold someone for a short time to stop a crime they think might happen. It is not an arrest for a crime already done. Courts have said again and again that it cannot be used to crush peaceful protest. That is exactly the argument before the Supreme Court today.
The two cases before the court
The first petition was filed by Trinamool Congress MP and senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy. She has challenged the preventive detention of opposition leaders and protesters, arguing it cannot be used to shut down the right to peaceful protest. Speaking to Bar and Bench, she said: “Such preventive detentions cannot be used to suppress the fundamental right to peaceful protest, particularly against leaders who have previously governed States.”
The second is a contempt petition by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi. It names Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar and Delhi Metro chief D Thara. The allegation is that they ignored the Supreme Court’s October 9 order, which said public transport should be regulated, not fully suspended, ahead of the protest.
What happened instead, according to the petition: restrictions stayed in place at 57 metro stations, several trains to New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin were cancelled, and traffic advisories were not published as the court had directed. The Hindu reported that Delhi Metro reopened 45 stations only after a 25-hour closure. Saturday also saw an internet shutdown in parts of the capital.
This part matters because the court had already stepped in once. On October 9, it told the authorities not to cause needless hardship to commuters and asked for compliance reports within four days. Sunday’s hearing will test whether those directions were followed.
Mumbai: Tushar Gandhi and 200 more detained
The crackdown was not limited to Delhi. In Mumbai, police detained Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, along with more than 200 others, the Federal reported. Gandhi, who heads an organisation called Hum Bharat Ke Log, had called for a 3.30 pm gathering at August Kranti Maidan in solidarity with the Delhi protest.
He was picked up from Bandra in the morning and taken to DN Nagar police station, the Indian Express reported. Police said no permission had been sought for the gathering and that August Kranti Maidan is not a designated protest site under a Bombay High Court order. Gandhi was released after nearly eight hours, the Federal said.
Actor Imran Khan was also among those detained in Mumbai, according to the Federal. And CJP had a rough day at the airport too: Dipke, Das and Ranka were stopped at Delhi’s IGI airport the moment their flight landed.
After his detention, Tushar Gandhi told supporters: “We will continue our protest despite detention.”
India’s sharp reply to the UN
The story went international on Saturday evening. The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said it was “concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists,” and asked the authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly.
India’s mission at the UN in Geneva hit back within hours. Its statement said: “The OHCHR’s concerns are misplaced and constitute an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of India.” It added that peaceful assembly is guaranteed by India’s Constitution but comes with reasonable restrictions in the interest of public order, and that people can go to court if they feel their rights were violated.
What happens next
The CJP has called for another round of protests in Delhi on Sunday, the Hindu reported. Its youth wing said the agitation will continue even without its leaders on the ground. Delhi Police, for its part, said its deployment will continue.
Three things to watch today. First, what the Supreme Court says in its special sitting — its words on detentions and the transport shutdown will set the tone for every protest case after this. Second, whether Dipke, Das and Ranka get bail or stay in custody. Third, whether Sunday’s protest call draws a crowd, or whether the weekend’s police action has done its job.
One more number to keep in mind: the deployment. More than 30,000 security personnel were put on the streets of Delhi for Saturday, according to Nation Press. That is the scale of force a protest now takes to hold in the national capital.
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