The Supreme Court on Thursday asserted that “nobody can browbeat the judiciary” as it agreed to examine a plea seeking a regulatory framework for protests and processions in the vicinity of the top court and other judicial complexes, in the wake of an October 12 march by Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, and their supporters towards the Supreme Court over alleged electoral irregularities and the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice on the petition, which also seeks criminal contempt proceedings against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, among others. However, the court made it clear that it was not initiating contempt proceedings at this stage. The petition names the Union government, Delhi Police commissioner, Gandhi, the Indian National Congress, Kharge, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, Yadav and Moitra as respondents. The post was subsequently deleted.
Bhatia, appearing for the petitioners, said it was unacceptable that the court had to deal with political processions near its premises and that lawyers were anguished by what had transpired on October 12. He referred to a memorandum signed by around 200 lawyers expressing concern over what they described as an attempt to browbeat the judiciary through scandalising statements. The bench also directed all law enforcement agencies to preserve CCTV footage and any other digital material collected in connection with the October 12 incident.
Private parties who had collected such material were also at liberty to preserve it, the court said in its order. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee was also named in the proceedings amid controversy over a post published by the Congress’s Kerala unit on X on October 12, which addressed the CJI as “Dear Surya Kant” and called on him to resign if law and order was not his domain.
