The Delhi High Court has listed a batch of matters seeking action against the Delhi Police officials for their alleged role in the December 2019 violence at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) before a Division Bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul.
Jamia Millia Islamia in 2019 was involved in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and later in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).It was back then that the Delhi Police officers allegedly entered the University campus and library without permission and thrashed the protesting students.
The petitioners have asked for an independent probe into allegations of police brutality, along with compensation for those who had suffered serious injuries as a result.
The pleas were put for hearing before the bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad today.
The Bench was apprised that the Supreme Court had passed an order on October 19 requesting the High Court to decide the matters soon because they have been pending since 2019.
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Rajat Nair, who appeared for the State, informed the Court that the matter before court are inextricably linked to the batch of matters related to the hate speeches delivered in Delhi during the CAA/NRC protests which allegedly led to the riots of February 2020.
The lawyer also said that these matters are already pending before the Division Bench II (Justice Mridul’s court) and therefore it should be transferred there as well.
The SPP Nair also added that, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aman Lekhi was arguing the matter, but since he has now demitted office, it has been assigned to ASG SV Raju.
The Bench has sent the matter to the Justice Mridul bench with a request to take up the matter at an early date, as requested by the apex court.
The cases will now be heard on November 29 along with the batch of petitions dealing with hate speech.