Published Jul 28, 2026 | 12:35 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 28, 2026 | 1:12 PM
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all states to immediately release student protesters who have been arrested/detained.
The top Court also ordered that there must be no coercive action against the protesters if they have no criminal antecedents and that no personal data or details of theirs must be published.
The Court told authorities to safeguard CCTV, drone and body camera footages and the logs of wireless communication and the Police Control Room.
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice V Mohana and Justice Joymalya Bagchi were part of the three-member bench that passed the order.
CJI Surya Kant had earlier wondered why there shouldn’t be an independent probe into allegations of police excesses during the student protests.
The top Court brought this up while dealing with a petition that sought interim direction for an SIT probe into the police action during the student protests.
“We don’t think elaborate arguments are required… It was a completely peaceful protest by students raising some demands. It was within the constitutional framework. According to their version, they want to say that in such a type of peaceful protest, there are always uninvited guests. They will enter with an agenda… Very soon they become co-host… on behalf of students, it is said, despite constitutional right, we were treated like this,” the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, was reported by Live Law as observing while hearing the petitions on the student protests as part of a three-member bench.
“There has to be a completely independent probe. Whoever has committed excess, law will take its course. Probe is meaningless if no responsibility is fixed,” he went on to underline, while saying that a prima facie case for the probe had been made out.
He listed how the petitions mentioned the use of pellet guns and how they had led to a 19-year-old boy losing his eyesight, of electric batons being used, of a young woman being admitted to the ICU, of the use of lathis with nails and of a journalist being mercilessly assaulted by police in mufti.
The Supreme Court said that it was clear that the police need to have clear new protocols on the playbook to be followed in dealing with agitations, while stating that the cops hadn’t followed the rules that are already in place.
The Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, in his response on behalf of the government, stated that “I am with the students. I don’t think they perpetrated a crime. If they have suffered, the perpetrators must be brought to book.”
He asked the Court to appoint a committee if needed to oversee the probe and sought a couple of days to place the “facts on record”.
The development comes on a day when there were reports that a general diary of the Deputy Commandant of the Rapid Action Force, who was posted in Zone 1 of Jantar Mantar on the day of the Chalo Sansad march, had logged the use of plastic pellets on protestors.
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