Tanisha Rana
Published on: October 28, 2022 at 20:11 IST
The Delhi High Court on Friday scheduled a hearing before a Division Bench presided over by Justice Siddharth Mridul on the batch of matters seeking legal action against the Delhi Police for their alleged involvement in the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) in December 2019.
Jamia was the scene of Anti-National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in late 2019 when Delhi Police officers allegedly broke into the university’s campus and library without authorization and beat up the students.
The petitioners have demanded not only an independent investigation of claims of police brutality, but also financial compensation for people who have suffered severe injuries as a result.
Today, the Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad’s bench heard the appeals.
The Supreme Court ordered the High Court to make a decision on the cases as soon as possible because they have been pending since 2019, the Bench was informed.
Speaking on behalf of the State, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Rajat Nair also told the court that these cases are intrinsically linked to the batch of matters involving hate speeches made in Delhi during the CAA/NRC protests that are thought to have caused the riots in February 2020.
Nair argued that since these issues are already pending before the Division Bench II (Justice Mridul’s court), they should also be transferred there.
The matter had previously been taken up by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aman Lekhi, but since he has subsequently resigned, it has been given to ASG SV Raju, he said.
The Bench forwarded the case to the Justice Mridul-led Bench with the request that it be decided as soon as possible in accordance with the Supreme Court’s request.
Now, the cases as well as the batch of petitions pertaining to hate speech will be heard on November 29.