The Centre and Delhi Police on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the decision to denotify Jantar Mantar as a protest site was not prompted by the court’s October 9 observations on the need to identify alternative venues for demonstrations, but followed recommendations made by a committee constituted by the Union home ministry much earlier.
Meanwhile, in the top court, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for petitioner and advocate Swaty Singh, pressed for an urgent order restoring Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site, saying the authorities had sought to justify the decision by referring to the Supreme Court ’s observations. Senior advocate Mukta Gupta further argued that the denotification of Jantar Mantar and the subsequent designation of three alternative venues would violate citizens’ fundamental right to protest. To be sure, the SG’s submission came two days after Delhi Police told the Delhi high court on Tuesday that Jantar Mantar was denotified as a designated protest site in view of the Supreme Court’s October 9 order calling for a reconsideration of Delhi’s decades-old arrangement for holding demonstrations. The October 9 order had called for a rethink of Delhi’s longstanding arrangement of holding demonstrations at Jantar Mantar, observing that the capital needed a larger, better-equipped space where citizens could exercise their democratic rights without obstructing essential services or compromising public safety.
“We (Delhi Police) (denotified) Jantar Mantar (as a protest site) after Supreme Court’s order dated October 9,” additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma, appearing for the police, told a bench of Justice Amit Mahajan while opposing a plea by Indian Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib challenging the denial of permission to hold a protest seeking chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar ’s resignation.
