CJI Surya Kant dismisses reports on urgent hearing as false

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant dismissed media reports claiming he refused an urgent hearing on a plea over the July 20 police action against students, clarifying that only a representation had been received and no petition had been formally filed

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday dismissed as “reckless” media reports that he had denied an urgent hearing on a plea challenging the July 20 police action against students, saying it was only a representation and not a petition.

No such petition was filed, he said.

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“In the last two days, a completely false statement was made that a matter was filed, and the media is absolutely free from all responsibility and falsely reporting that the Chief Justice refused to list the matter,” he said.

“Till 10 am this morning, not a single page has been filed. It was one representation… sent by Mishra or someone. How can I treat the representation as a writ petition? And people start recklessly reporting this,” the CJI said while lawyers were mentioning their cases for urgent listing on Friday.

On Wednesday, a lawyer sought an urgent hearing on the police action against students during the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest march here on July 20.

“I have the videos as well regarding police brutality… If it can be listed tomorrow (Thursday)… students are there,” the lawyer had said.

He said the students had allegedly been subjected to police brutality during the protest.

The CJI had declined the request and made it clear that the bench was not inclined to examine video footage at the mentioning stage.

“We are not interested in videos, we don’t have time to watch… We don’t want to watch videos,” the CJI had said.

When the counsel reiterated that students had been beaten up and again referred to the video evidence, the CJI had said, “Don’t waste our time. We don’t want to watch any videos.”

The Cockroach Janta Party-led march on July 20 witnessed clashes between protesters and security personnel, who used lathis and tear gas to disperse the crowd attempting to move towards Parliament.

The protesters were demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the alleged NEET paper leak.