Supreme Court rejects plea on Jantar Mantar protest FIR probe

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking an independent probe into FIRs from the Jantar Mantar protest. The bench said the petition essentially sought a review of its earlier Article 142 order quashing some cases.Image used for representational purposes onlyNewdelhi,Oct 9, 2026 13:00 ISTThe Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea that sought directions to the Centre, the Delhi government and the police to ensure an independent and fair probe into the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest held at Jantar Mantar in July. The protest against the alleged NEET paper leak had ended with Dharmendra Pradhan resigning as Union education minister.The court also refused a request to declare that the police, like the judiciary, exercise sovereign and independent functions in maintaining law and order and investigating crimes, free from interference unless their actions are contrary to law. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard the matter linked to the investigation into FIRs registered over the protest.The petition had made the Centre, the Commissioner of Police, the Delhi government, Shailendra Mani Tripathi, one of the PIL petitioners in the CJP protest case, and CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke parties to the case. Appearing for petitioner L Ramanathan, advocate Mathews Nedumpara questioned the maintainability of the PIL and opposed judicial intervention in the absence of actual litigants. He said people were approaching the court as though it were their private property.Responding to the submissions, the CJI defended the court's use of Article 142 of the Constitution to quash certain FIRs. "There is no guarantee that we keep passing 100 per cent correct orders. You say we should not have invoked Article 142 and quashed FIRs...please appreciate, these are young students. We have to see their parents, their future. We don't want them to come to court... You have not seen our order in the case of members of legislative assembly/Parliament," the bench said. Citing Himachal Pradesh as an example, the CJI said some politicians had sat on a dharna there and caused loss to public property. "But when there was Covid, people of this country were not ready to face this kind of crisis... so people reacted in a way they could react. The High Court declined to quash (the FIRs), but, we allowed, saying they are not hardened criminals," he said. The bench said the plea was effectively seeking a review of the order quashing FIRs by invoking Article 142.The petition had sought a declaration that the police enjoy an independent sphere of authority in maintaining law and order, investigating crimes and bringing offenders to justice, comparable to the judiciary's independence in administering justice. It said that just as the executive cannot interfere with judicial functions, police functions in their designated domain should not be interfered with unless police act contrary to law or with mala fide intent, matters which may involve adjudication of disputed questions of fact. It also sought a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the Centre, the Delhi government and the city police to ensure that the investigation into the FIRs linked to the Jantar Mantar protest is conducted independently, fairly and in accordance with law. With this, the Supreme Court declined to entertain the plea challenging the handling of the FIRs arising from the July protest at Jantar Mantar and stood by its earlier exercise of powers under Article 142 in quashing certain cases.- Ends