The detention of protesters across the national capital this week, while demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged electoral irregularities, has raised questions over the Delhi Police’s failure to make publicly available Section 163 prohibitory orders that it says are in force.
The provision empowers an Executive Magistrate to issue written orders when “immediate prevention or a speedy remedy” is necessary to prevent danger to human life or safety, disturbance of public tranquillity, or other specified threats.
The post, however, neither carries copies of the orders nor specifies how long the restrictions will remain in force. Meanwhile, protesters have been detained at locations beyond the Parliament Street police sub-division, including Connaught Place (CP). Former Supreme Court judge Abhay S.
A Section 163 BNSS order accessed by The Hindu , issued on August 23 by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ajay Sharma, shows that the restrictions are confined to the Parliament Street police sub-division and expressly exclude a specifically demarcated area at Jantar Mantar Road. The order, in force until October 21, prohibits assemblies of five or more persons, public meetings, processions, slogan-shouting, and speeches, among other activities. Further, an X post made on October 3 by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), New Delhi, states that Section 163 BNSS prohibitory orders are in force across the New Delhi district, barring unauthorised gatherings, processions and dharnas, and that no permission has been granted for any protest. At a protest in CP on Sunday (October 11, 2026), Opposition leaders and several protesters were detained, along with a dozen journalists who alleged that they were taken to detention centres despite displaying their press cards. Restrictions have also been put in place around Jantar Mantar, with adjoining roads heavily barricaded and police personnel deployed at access points, even as a demarcated area at Jantar Mantar Road falls outside the ambit of the August 23 order. On Wednesday (October 14), protesters attempting to march towards Jantar Mantar, which has been de-notified as a designated protest site, were stopped by barricades on Firoz Shah Road. Delhi Police sources refused to confirm to The Hindu whether separate Section 163 BNSS orders for the other sub-divisions of the New Delhi district — Connaught Place, Chanakyapuri and Barakhamba Road — or for the Jantar Mantar area had been made publicly available. Oka said making prohibitory orders publicly available was necessary to give effect to the statutory right under Section 163(5) of the BNSS, which allows an aggrieved person to seek their rescission or alteration. The absence of publicly available prohibitory orders has also been raised before the Supreme Court by B.Tech student Samriddhi Das, who alleged that police restrictions prevented her from reaching a protest site on October 10.
The protests followed the arrest of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das earlier in the day for allegedly entering the area “without permission” the previous day. They said hoardings had been put up and announcements were being made in these areas informing people that prohibitory orders were in force. Her petition, filed through advocates Nipun Saxena and Ashima Mandla, alleged that the Delhi Police had “mischievously” failed to upload the prohibitory order purportedly restricting access to and around Jantar Mantar on their website.
