New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, urged law enforcement agencies to exercise restraint when dealing with young protesters.
The Court said this while agreeing to hear a plea seeking action against organisers of the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ march for inviting violence.
The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana tagged the plea, filed by a retired Air Force officer, with a similar petition, as reported by NDTV.
“Fifteen days have passed. I am seeing that the organisers of such a mayhem in the national capital, in a high-security zone, are, even after 15 days, moving from channel to channel on a silver platter, still giving provocative statements, still not allowing the fire to die down, still fanning it,” advocate Rizwan Ahmed, appearing for petitioner Maneesh Kumar Solanki, submitted.
He referred to a recent law and order incident in Rajasthan and argued that governments should not “bend backwards” to accommodate protesters.
“One young man has died. If the government bends backwards in a matter concerning the national capital, will it not set a precedent in Rajasthan? There also the government will bend backwards to accommodate students. Tomorrow, if degree college students in Lucknow have some demand and start pelting stones at buses, will the government in Uttar Pradesh also bend backwards?” he submitted.
The CJI responded this and said that even if some “misguided elements” indulge in stone-throwing, youngsters are required to be pacified and counselled.
“If some misguided elements indulge in stone-pelting, even then the youngsters are required to be pacified and counselled. They need advice and counselling. Any aggressive approach from the side of the mighty State may socially aggravate the situation and precipitate further violence. That needs to be avoided,” CJI Kant said.
Ahmed, however, contended that those involved in stone-pelting should not be allowed to go scot-free without any consideration merely because the government was on the “wrong foot”.
“This is a very dangerous precedent. Three years back, the farmers were at the Singhu border. Tomorrow, Generation Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta will come. Will the people from the Singhu border tomorrow come to Parliament with their tractors? Will the people from Shaheen Bagh tomorrow come to Parliament with their tractors?” the lawyer said.
“If 500 people had entered Parliament, who knows whether they were carrying a country-made gun? What if they had opened fire? They were not marching on a national highway. They were not marching on a railway line. They were marching towards the temple of democracy. Everyone must be held accountable,” he argued.
The focus should be on ensuring peaceful protests while exercising restraint if an incident occurs, the CJI observed.
“What is important is to promote a peaceful march. If some incident takes place, the police also need to exercise a great deal of restraint to ensure that the situation does not go out of hand. Wherever such incidents take place, we need to deal with them very carefully. We need to tread carefully so that these youngsters do not indulge in violence. The better course is to counsel them and pacify them. The most powerful tool is listening. Listen to them and understand why they are shouting. But let us leave it to the wisdom of the law-enforcement agencies. They know better than you, and they know better than us, how to deal with this kind of situation,” the Chief Justice said.
The petitioner has also sought directions to identify those students who allegedly used derogatory language against police and security personnel and require them to perform community service.