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On police action in citizenship law protests, SC to take up plea after violence stops


Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 16, 2019: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde has said that he will hear the petition against violence at Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi only when “all this stops”.

“We will determine the rights but not in the atmosphere of riots. Let all of this stop and then we will take suo motu cognizance. We are not against rights and peaceful demonstrations,” CJI Bobde said after lawyer Indira Jaising pleading to the court to take suo motu cognizance of incidents at Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as to Hindustan Times .

 

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“It’s a very serious human rights violation all over the country,” Jaising said told the court.

“Just because they happen to be students, it doesn’t mean they can take law and order in their hands. This has to be decided when things cool down. This is not the frame of mind when we can decide anything. Let the rioting stop,” the CJI said.

When another senior advocate Colin Gonsalves asked for a probe by retired Supreme Court judge, the CJI said, “We don’t want to see videos (when an advocate tells court that videos are there). If violence and destruction of public property continues, we will not hear it.” The court is expected to hear the matter on Tuesday.

A petition was also moved in the Delhi High Court on Monday against the police action on students at Jamia university on Sunday night.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar declined to list the plea for urgent hearing, saying there was “no urgency in the matter”.

Protesters torched four public buses and two police vehicles on Sunday as they clashed with police in New Friends’ Colony near Jamia university in south Delhi during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act, leaving six cops and two firemen injured, officials said.

The trouble started during a protest by students of Jamia Millia Islamia. But a students’ body later said they had nothing to do with the violence and arson and alleged that “certain elements” had joined in and “disrupted” the demonstration.

Soon after the violence, Jamia Millia Islamia Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan claimed that the Delhi Police entered the campus forcibly without any permission and beat up staff members and students who were then forced to leave the campus.