Jamia Violence: Delhi HC Single Bench Transfers A Student's Plea To Chief Justice's Bench

Justice Vibhu Bakhru, perused the order of the Supreme Court dated 17/12/19 and the fact that there's no need for an interim order in the present plea, decided to transfer the matter to the court of Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

ASG Aman Lekhi submitted before the court that multiple petitions with similar prayer have already been mentioned before the Chief's court, and the same will be coming for the hearing tomorrow.

He also argued that the Petitioner in this particular plea of not directly affected by the actions of the Respondent. Further, since the directions sought in he plea are in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation, the same should be heard by the Division Bench of the High Court.

ASG also went to say that:

'There's no point of issuing mandamus. There's no student in detention as of now'.

Counsel for Petitioners argued that they're willing to move the plea before the Division Bench, provided no coercive action is taken against the Petitioner students.

Rahul Mehra submitted before the court that the Petitioners in the present plea are not 'hardened criminals'. They're women with no criminal antecedents, they should be given interim protection from coercive action.

Addressing the issue of protection from coercive action, the court noted that if there's a real apprehension of any coercive action to be taken against a specific person, an application can be moved before this court with a prior notice given to the other party.

Moved by Nabila Hasan, the petition seeks release of all the students and residents detained by the police, correcting the alleged violence caused by police and paramilitary forces, and providing medical assistance and compensation to the injured persons.

The petition also seeks a direction to be issued to the police to immediately cease all the violence that has been continuing in the campus.

Further, the Petitioner has asked the court to direct the Respondents to quash all criminal proceedings initiated against the students of the University.

Apart from asking for the court to direct the police to preserve the CCTV footage, the petition has also demanded an independent judicial enquiry, headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge, to investigate into the alleged instances of violence and arbitrary detention by the police.

It is also prayed by the Petitioners that the University shall be allowed to be reopened by the earliest.

Students of Jamila Millia Islamia University have been protesting against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. As per the Chief Proctor of the University, Delhi Police forcefully entered the varsity's campus on Sunday, following which, many students were beaten and forced to leave the campus.

Delhi Police, on the other side, claims that the violence of protesting students has resulted in six personnel being injured, in addition to certain police vehicles being set ablaze.

There are also reports of police firing tear gas cannons in the library and using lathi charge to disperse the protesting crowd.