New Delhi: Observing that the right to peaceful protest is guaranteed, the Supreme Court agreed to hear on Tuesday a batch of pleas alleging police excesses against students protesting over NEET paper leak across the country and other exam irregularities.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana also agreed to take up a separate plea, filed by a few family members of those police personnel who were attacked during the protest, along with other listed petitions.
“The Right to peaceful protest is absolutely guaranteed. That cannot be denied. Merely because there is agitation cannot justify police excesses,” the CJI said.
“Life of every individual irrespective of who they are is important,” the bench asserted when a lawyer said that police personnel were also beaten up.
“There should be a protocol in place. There should be proper space and no restriction. But if there are some anti-social elements etc that can be taken care of. This is not a question of Delhi only. Uniformity of protocol is needed,” the bench said.
It said that just because there is agitation, it does not mean there should ‘lathi charge’.
“Self-evolved discipline is needed which is essential to democratic process,” the CJI said and urged parties to assist the bench in an inadversarial manner.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said he will assist the court dispassionately.
Earlier, the top court had agreed to hear on Monday the pleas alleging police excesses against students protesting over the NEET paper leak.
Students were staging protests in several states against the paper leak.
The Cockroach Janta Party-led march on July 20 in Delhi witnessed clashes between protesters and security personnel, who allegedly used lathis and tear gas shells to disperse crowds attempting to move towards Parliament.
The protesters were demanding the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak issue.
