SC praises Delhi Police's handling of sit-in protest by Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday lauded the police’s handling of the sit-in protest by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal near Rajpath days before the Republic Day, saying it could not have used “force or coercive action” to “jettison” the fundamental rights of citizens.

This was in stark contrast to the court’s observation last week when it had pulled up the police and Union home ministry, which oversees the functioning of Delhi police, for their ‘failure’ to prevent the protestors from defying prohibitory orders.

“What else could the police have done? You wanted them to shoot at sight? You have to understand the psyche of the people. You can’t start severe, coercive action from the start,” a bench of justices RM Lodha and Shiva Kirti Singh said while dismissing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer N Rajaraman.

The PIL had sought action against the protestors for the “illegal” sit-in. Appearing for the Delhi police, Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra said the police had imposed Section 144 (of the Criminal Procedure Code that bars assembly of five or more people) in the area around Rajpath as soon as it got wind of the protest plan.

He said the police had also registered a FIR within hours of the protest. The bench expressed satisfaction at the police action. “We can’t go into the sufficiency of the reasons. Police action was started immediately. We can’t thrust our wisdom on the executive. In this case they seem to have acted reasonably fast,” Justice Lodha said.