JNU row: Supreme Court to hear PIL on court attack today

The plea, filed by a JNU alumni, seeks protection for JNUSU president, lawyers and others present on the court premises.

The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday a writ petition seeking adequate protection for Kanhaiya Kumar, president of Jawarharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, along with the journalists and others visiting the Patiala courts in connection with the sedition case registered by the Delhi police.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices R. Banumathi and Uday Lalit agreed to hear on an urgent basis the petition filed by N.D. Jayaprakash which highlighted the unprecedented physical violence witnessed on Monday in which journalists, litigants and others visiting the court were mercilessly assaulted by lawyers and others.

The petitioner, who is a JNU alumni, said he was constrained to move the court due to “physical violence and intimidation faced by the petitioner and a large number of students, teachers and journalists while attending a judicial proceeding before the court of Loveleen, Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House courts in Delhi, as well as in the court complex which was in the presence of Respondent No. 2 (the Delhi police). It said that violence in the court complex can never be permitted or countenanced. It is so serious a breach so as to tantamount to criminal contempt of court and denial of access to justice. Even surcharged atmosphere is considered not conducive to justice by that standard physical violence must be treated as grossest of contempt apart from various other offences. The atmosphere was so surcharged that even the women journalists were not spared and were not permitted to discharge their journalistic duties and be able to report the events as witnessed by them directly.

More than a dozen journalists, including women, suffered physical assault and sustained injuries, the mobile phones of journalists were snatched, broken or stolen to prevent them to able to report the violence. The Delhi police was a mute spectator to this brazen display of violence and brute force being perpetrated on innocent people. The state and the police have bounden constitutional obligation to ensure the safety and security of the life and liberty of citizens. The incidence of February 15 is a crude affront to the rule of law and violation of Article 21,” the petition stated.

The petitioner said a congenial atmosphere is imperative for a fair and impartial judicial proceeding, which is a fundamental right. It sought a direction to ensure that the court free of persons causing physical harm, any form of intimidation or any disturbance whatsoever.