Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Friday termed media reports claiming that he had refused to hear a case related to alleged police excesses during the CJP protest as “irresponsible and reckless reporting.” He clarified that no writ petition had been filed before the Supreme Court in the matter.
The CJI made the remarks in open court when Senior Advocate Shoaib Alam referred to the listing of another case. He said the media had incorrectly reported that he had refused to list the matter. “It was only a representation,” he said, adding that he had also verified the position with the Supreme Court Registry.
Calling the reports “irresponsible and reckless,” the CJI said, “For the past two days, it has been wrongly reported that the matter had been filed before the court. Till 10 a.m., not a single page had been filed. It was merely a representation sent by Mishra or someone else.”
Earlier, on Wednesday, advocate Narendra Mishra had made an oral request for an urgent hearing on allegations of police excesses during the CJP-led protest in Delhi. The request was made before a Bench comprising CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohan.
The Bench declined to entertain the oral mention, saying, “Don’t waste your time and ours.” It also refused the lawyer’s request to view videos of the alleged police action, observing that such material could not be considered during an oral mentioning.
Cockroach Janata Party had taken out a Parliament march on July 20. During this, thousands of protesters moved towards Parliament, police had lathi-charged to stop them.
CJI had said, ‘We don’t have time to watch videos’
The Supreme Court had refused to grant an urgent hearing on a petition against the alleged lathi-charge on Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) supporters. On Wednesday, a lawyer had orally mentioned a public interest litigation before a three-judge Bench headed by CJI Surya Kant.
The CJI had said, “We are not interested in watching the videos. We do not have the time to watch them.” When the lawyer repeated the request to show videos of the alleged assault on students, the CJI responded, “Don’t waste your time or ours.”
It may be recalled that during the hearing of another case on May 15, the CJI had remarked, “Some unemployed youths are like cockroaches. Later, they become members of the media, social media influencers, or RTI activists and begin attacking the system.” Following this remark, Abhijeet Dipke created an Instagram account named Cockroach Janata Party.
The Cockroach Janata Party organised a Parliament March on July 20. Thousands of protesters marched towards Parliament, and police allegedly resorted to a lathi-charge to stop them. More than 100 police personnel and students were reportedly injured in the clashes.
