CJI Surya Kant Refutes Reports on Refusing Student Protest Plea, Cites No Formal Filing

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday refuted reports that he had refused to list a petition challenging the police action against students during the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest march, clarifying that no such plea had been filed in the Supreme Court. The CJI said a lawyer had merely mentioned a letter representation before the court dismissed reports that he had declined to hear a properly instituted case. "In the last two days, a completely false statement was made that a matter was filed," the CJI said. He added that until 10am on Friday, "not a single page" had been filed in the court. "It was one representation sent by that Mishra or someone. How can I treat the representation as a writ petition? And people start recklessly reporting this," he said, describing the coverage as "irresponsible and reckless". The clarification came two days after a lawyer mentioned the issue before a bench headed by the CJI and sought an urgent hearing over the alleged use of force against students during the July 20 protest. The lawyer told the court that videos purportedly showing police action against students were available and requested that the matter be listed the following day. The bench, however, declined to examine the videos at the mentioning stage. "We are not interested in videos; we don’t have time to watch," the CJI had said. When the lawyer again referred to the alleged beating of students, the CJI responded: "Don’t waste our time. We don’t want to watch any videos." The CJI’s latest remarks indicate that the exchange occurred during an oral mentioning based on a representation, rather than the urgent listing of a formally filed writ petition. The controversy followed clashes during the Cockroach Janta Party-led ‘Sansad Chalo’ march on July 20. Police used lathis and tear gas to disperse protesters who attempted to move towards Parliament. The demonstrators were demanding the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the alleged NEET paper leak and wider irregularities in competitive examinations.