HC grants Centre "last opportunity" to respond to plea to transfer Jamia violence probe from police

The Delhi High Court Tuesday granted a ''last opportunity'' to the Centre to file its reply to a plea seeking transfer from the Delhi Police to an independent agency the FIRs lodged against students in the incidents of violence in Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University in December 2019 following protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh issued notice to the Centre and asked it to file within a week its reply to the amendment application of a petitioner who also sought setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to inquire into the alleged police atrocities that took place during the protests.

The court listed a batch of petitions, which have alleged use of ''ruthless and excessive'' force by the police and paramilitary forces on students, for further hearing on December 13.

''Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the respondent, prays for and is granted one week's time as the last opportunity to file reply to the application. Rejoinder, if any, by the petitioner be filed before the next date of hearing,'' the bench said.

The amendment application prays the FIRs registered by Delhi Police against students as well as the complaints made by the students should be investigated by an independent agency. It also suggested the names of certain civil servants who could be appointed to head the independent SIT.

The bench was informed by the counsel for one of the petitioners that some of the prayers in the petition have become infructuous owing to passage of time as the incidents are three years old.

During the hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Nabila Hasan, said at the time of the incident, students were holding peaceful protests but police attacked them mercilessly, fractured their bones and one student was even blinded.

Police went to girls' hostel and beat up the boarders besides storming the library, he alleged.

The bench, which noted since the pleas were filed at the time when the alleged incidents took place, some of the reliefs sought might have become infructuous.

It said the only prayers which survive were related to monetary compensation to the injured students and a court-monitored committee headed by a retired judge to inquire into the violence.

Taking note of a Supreme Court order of October 19, the high court had last month requested the bench headed by Justice Mridul to decide at an ''early date” these petitions.

The petitions sought directions for setting up an SIT, Commission of Inquiry (CoI) or a fact-finding committee, medical treatment, compensation and interim protection from arrest for students and registration of FIRs against the erring police officers.

Police had earlier opposed the plea for setting up an SIT or a CoI to look into the incidents of violence, saying it will ''amount to supplanting the law''.

The petitioners before the court are lawyers, students of JMI, residents of Okhla in south Delhi, where the university is located, and the Imam of Jama Masjid mosque opposite Parliament House.

On October 19, the Supreme Court had requested the high court to “hear out early” the petitions concerning the incidents of violence while noting that “these matters are pending before the high court for some time now”.

In the main pleas, the petitioners have said there was a need for an SIT that was independent of the police and the central government which by their conduct have shown their investigation was ''not independent''.

They have said such a move will also ''reassure the public'' and restore people's faith in the system.

Earlier, the police had opposed the petitions, saying the reliefs sought by the petitioners cannot be granted as charge sheets have already been filed and that they should have sought whatever relief they wanted before the subordinate court concerned.

On the issue of police entering the varsity without permission, the police’s counsel had said internationally police are not denied access to educational institutions and universities.

With regard to providing compensation to students who were seriously injured in the violence, he had said it can be awarded only if there was an admission of breach and, in the present case, the issue was still being examined.