Delhi High Court seeks responses from Centre, police on excessive force allegations during NEET protest

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre and Delhi Police over alleged excessive force during the July 20 NEET student march to Parliament. The court ordered all CCTV footage preserved and scheduled the next hearing for September 11

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Centre and the city police on two pleas alleging excessive use of force against protesters during the July 20 march to Parliament.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia directed the authorities to preserve all relevant records in relation to the police action, including CCTV camera footage and any videography.

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The bench issued a notice on the PILs and gave four weeks to the authorities to file their counter affidavits.

“Let a counter affidavit be filed on behalf of the respondents within four weeks,” the court ordered.

“In the meantime, we direct that the relevant record in relation to the incident as mentioned in the writ petitions, including the CCTV footage and videography, shall be preserved as per the SOP of the Delhi Police or the Union of India,” it added.

The matter would be heard next on September 11.

Senior advocates N Hariharan, Vikas Singh and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, contended that police used excessive force on protesters, including women and children.

Seeking an inquiry into the incident, the senior counsel asserted that the protesters were exercising their fundamental right to peacefully protest against irregularities in NEET.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju said the pleas were based on social media posts and were not maintainable.