Free Speech Collective moves SC with contempt plea against Delhi Police, Union Home Ministry

The Free Speech Collective has approached the Supreme Court of India with a plea asking Delhi Police and its arms to be held in contempt of its October 11 order to allow journalists to cover the ongoing protests against election chief Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) unhindered. The respondents in the case are the Union home ministry, the Delhi government and the police commissioner of Delhi.

The plea was filed Monday, October 12, after journalists were seen being dragged by the neck, shoved into buses for no apparent reason, stopped from doing their work, and ignored them when they showed their work IDs, says the petition. These events unfolded during a protest called by the CJP and Left outfits on Sunday.

“This court had directed [on October 10] that lawyers, journalists and other professionals ‘shall not be hindered in discharge of their professional duties’,” the petition, in which the collective is represented by journalist Geeta Seshu, says, adding that Delhi Police personnel still “detained, removed and otherwise obstructed journalists reporting from R.K. Ashram Marg, Connaught Place and other locations across Delhi”.

Accordingly, the petition says, the Supreme Court must “initiate contempt proceedings” against the Delhi government, home ministry and Delhi Police.

The Free Speech Collective has cited reports of journalists associated with The News Minute, the Hindu, the Indian Express (Hindi), Peek TV and PTI in its petition, saying journalists were also “detained while engaged in reporting, and prevented from documenting police action”.

The petition cites a PTI photojournalist’s account that police personnel “dragged other journalists by their necks into a police van despite their displaying press identification and cameras, as well as reported physical assault and forcible removal of other journalists into police buses”.

The Supreme Court on Sunday (October 11) held a special hearing to hear a separate batch of petitions, including one related to contempt by the authorities managing the protest in the capital. It issued notices to the force in the contempt plea, on the grounds that Delhi Police and cerain civilian administration ignored a ruling on October 9 to only impose reasonable restrictions on movement and commmunications in the city.

Delhi Police is under the control of the Union home ministry, while the civilian administration apparatus was transferred to the control of the Union government after the Modi government passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act in 2023.

The court had on October 9 ruled that the essential public transport could not be barred in an “overreaching” manner and that there could be no outright prohibition upon Delhi Metro services.

On October 10, a plea was filed against the disobedience of this order and further for widespread detentions of the protesters, passers-by and journalists. This petition also sought directions for the police to produce before the court those people it had detained.

“Journalists reporting the protests were also reportedly treated with violence, removed and detained by the police notwithstanding the display of press identification,” said the petition filed on Monday.

Thereafter, on Sunday, October 11, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the Supreme Court that journalists would not be prevented from covering the protest.

Citing news reports published over the last 18 hours or so, the petition points out that journalists associated with numerous legacy and new outlets were manhandled and abused in different ways while covering the protest on Sunday:

• Reporter TV, 24 News and Asianet News, including Roshni Rajan and Farza T.M., who were were reportedly detained at or near R.K. Ashram Marg, were released only after several hours.

• Journalist Nidhi Suresh of The News Minute was reported to have been forcibly detained by the police in a police station and released only at about 6:30 pm.

• At Connaught Place, journalists Shashwat, Siya and Vijay of the Indian Express (Hindi) were reportedly detained while reporting and taken to Chatrasal Stadium.

• At R.K. Ashram Marg, journalists questioning Delhi Police about the detention of another journalist were themselves stopped.

• When journalist Sreenivasan Jain questioned the police, an officer told him that it was “not the right time to ask anything”.

• Citing a report on The Wire, it says that a uniformed Delhi Police officer was recorded preventing a BBC Hindi correspondent from covering the protest.

• Citing the Hindu, it says Delhi Police claimed that the journalists had been working “too close” to protesters and might have been detained owing to “confusion”.

This article has been republished with permission from The Wire. The original article can be read here.