Cockroach Janta Party Protests: SC Gives Jantar Mantar Panel One Month

The Supreme Court on Thursday, 5 November, asked the high-powered enquiry committee it set up to examine police excesses and violence at the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests at Jantar Mantar to submit its report within a month. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the panel should not wait for more complaints, after being told it had received “hardly any” responses, according to The Tribune.

Panel Can Use Videos and Petitions Already Filed

The court said the committee may examine material, including video clips, that petitioners submitted on behalf of victims, and that petitions, affidavits, videos and complaints should be forwarded to it. Complaints can be filed anonymously. The bench urged petitioners to encourage affected people to approach the panel.

The committee told the court it had set up a complaints portal and an email address, and that notices ran in 149 newspapers on 17 October and again on 21 October. The portal drew few complaints and the email none. A sitting on 29 October was attended by one complainant, who filed an affidavit, and by some police personnel.

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Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for some petitioners, disputed the panel’s account and said representations had been submitted before and after the portal opened. Senior advocate Vrinda Grover proposed that material already before the court be sent to the panel, rather than each victim having to appear. She said no FIR had been registered. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre and Delhi Police, argued that PIL petitioners may lack personal knowledge and that victims should come forward themselves.

A Panel With a Changed Line-Up

The committee is headed by Justice (retd) R Subhash Reddy. Its members are Ravi Shankar Jha, former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Shalinder Kaur, a former Delhi High Court judge; and Rishi Kumar Shukla, a former CBI director. Retired Meghalaya DGP L R Bishnoi was relieved at his own request for personal reasons.

The Supreme Court formed the panel in August after petitions alleged illegal detentions and assaults on protesters. IPB News covered the portal launch in an earlier report on the panel’s complaint hearings of 29 and 30 October, and tracks the case under the Supreme Court tag.

Report Due in About a Month

The report on police excesses is due within a month of the 5 November order, which puts the deadline in early December. The reports available do not give the next hearing date.

Source: Based on reporting by The Tribune and Bar & Bench. No order text was available at the time of writing.

Image: PTI (file photo).