The court was hearing a plea by the two CJP leaders against the extension of their judicial custody by a special executive magistrate (SEM) court.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka their ages and told them they were “not Gen Z”.
During the hearing, Justice Subramonium Prasad asked Abhik Chimni, counsel for the petitioners, about their ages. What is GenZ? Then you are not GenZ. The duo withdrew their plea challenging the extension of their judicial custody after the high court refused to entertain it. The SEM court later extended their custody by two days. “We are seeing what is happening outside our country… Arson etc. You may have started with something you say is peaceful. For that purpose you take police permission which is to prevent unwanted persons who join your group and spoil your name,” Bar and Bench quoted the high court as observing. The high court also questioned Chimni about the procedure followed after the leaders furnished their bail bonds and allegedly breached the conditions in connection with the Jantar Mantar trespass incident. It questioned why the procedure prescribed under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) for breach of bail bonds was not followed.
Chimni informed the court that Saurav Das was 27 years old and Ashutosh Ranka was 32. Court is informed that people born after 1997 are GenZ. Das and Ranka were detained and subsequently sent to judicial custody after they trespassed Jantar Mantar, a denotified protest site, on October 13. The court observed that the petitioners had furnished bail bonds on October 11, the same day Jantar Mantar was de-notified as a designated protest site, before being arrested again.
The court remarked, “Then you are not GenZ, according to Bar and Bench.
