SC To Hear Delhi Police Plea To Quash 13 NEET Protest FIRs
SC will hear Delhi Police plea involving 13 FIRs and 2,873 protesters.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on Tuesday a Delhi Police plea seeking to quash 13 FIRs registered against students who participated in protests over alleged NEET examination irregularities. The police has also sought permission to register a fresh case against 2,873 individuals who were allegedly present at the demonstrations and were prima facie found to have serious criminal antecedents.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana agreed to list the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought an urgent hearing. Mehta told the court that the Centre intended to move an interlocutory application seeking quashing of the FIRs. He also indicated that the government was invoking the Supreme Court’s extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.
In its application, the Delhi Police referred to a Centre decision taken on July 25 and stated that it no longer wished to pursue the 13 FIRs registered in connection with the protests. However, it sought the court’s permission to register a fresh FIR against 2,873 people allegedly present at the protest site whose names were prima facie linked to serious criminal antecedents in the National Crime Records Bureau database.
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The proposed investigation would examine whether any of those individuals were involved in offences involving bodily harm or destruction of property during the demonstrations. The police clarified that the proposed fresh FIR would be limited to the 2,873 individuals and that no new case would be registered for incidents already covered by the existing proceedings. It also sought to ensure that any order permitting the move would remain confined to the specific circumstances of the case.
The development comes ahead of a proposed protest march in Delhi by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has alleged that commitments made by the Centre on July 25 were not honoured after the withdrawal of its 36-day agitation over alleged examination irregularities. The proposed Teachers’ Day march is expected to involve families of students who allegedly died by suicide following the cancellation and re-test of the NEET examination, as well as people who have alleged police excesses during the protests.
The Supreme Court had earlier appointed a high-powered committee headed by former judge Justice R Subhash Reddy to examine issues arising from the nationwide protests, including allegations of police excesses against students. On August 3, the court clarified that “criminal antecedents” in its earlier order referred to involvement in grave and heinous offences. The student-led agitation had begun at Jantar Mantar on June 20 and spread to several cities, with protesters demanding accountability over alleged NEET irregularities and the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The agitation was called off on July 25 after Pradhan resigned and the government accepted the CJP’s other demands.
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