States Unite With Centre In Supreme Court To Quash FIRs Against Student Protesters

Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court seeking its nod to quash criminal cases registered in connection with protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), joining the Centre's move to end the criminal proceedings arising from the agitation. The move came a day after the Centre moved the court seeking to quash FIRs registered in connection with the CJP-led protests, invoking Article 142 of the Constitution to press the top court to act swiftly on the applications.

The CJP-led protests took place between July 20 and 25 in and around Jantar Mantar in the national capital, drawn by anger over the leak of key medical entrance exam papers, a controversy that had already forced the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and prompted several student suicides linked to the fallout from the leak. On July 25, senior government representatives, including Union ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh, along with CJP spokespersons, had given assurances that FIRs against protesters would be withdrawn and that no coercive action would be taken, prompting the group to call off its 36-day agitation.

However, the CJP has accused the Centre of failing to honour those commitments in full, with the group's spokesperson previously warning that authorities may seek to "weaponise" subsequent court directives to continue investigating and harassing individual protesters rather than withdrawing cases as promised. Delhi Police separately moved the Supreme Court on August 31 seeking to quash 13 FIRs linked to the protests while simultaneously seeking to register a fresh case to investigate the role of 2,873 individuals identified during the demonstrations, a dual move that has added to tensions between the CJP and law enforcement authorities in the lead-up to a planned fresh protest march.

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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, urged the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to take up the matter with urgency, specifically invoking Article 142, which grants the Supreme Court broad powers to pass orders necessary for doing "complete justice" in a matter. The bench had earlier in the day declined to stay a separate protest march the CJP has called for September 5, from India Gate to Delhi Police headquarters, stating it had no concrete reason to believe the march would lead to any untoward incidents and that maintaining law and order remained the responsibility of the state. "We will proceed on the assumption that everyone will behave responsibly, peacefully and in accordance with the law," the court observed, while noting that petitioners could approach it again if serious issues arose during the march.

The coordinated move by Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar to join the Centre's application reflects a broader effort among both BJP-ruled and opposition-led states to resolve the legal fallout from the protests ahead of the CJP's planned march, even as the group continues to accuse the government of dragging its feet on the commitments made in July. With the Supreme Court having taken up the Centre's application for detailed hearing, the coming days are expected to determine whether the FIRs linked to the protests are formally quashed, a decision that could significantly shape the tone of relations between the government and the youth-led movement heading into its next planned demonstration.

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