On Monday, a 2-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph directed senior advocates, Sadhana Ramachandran and Sanjay Hegde, to act as interlocutors and convince the Shaheen Bagh protestors to relocate to an alternative place, reported Bar and Bench. The Court granted permission to the two lawyers to choose a third interlocutor of their choice.
The order came at the backdrop of two petitions filed in the apex court, seeking clearance of Shaheen Bagh area and the Kalindi Kunj Road. The first petition had been filed by lawyer and activist, Amit Sahni while the other one had been filed by BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg.
The Bench has directed the two Senior Counsels to submit a report on the outcome of the mediation process by February 24, the day when the next hearing in the case is to be held. The Delhi police have also been asked to provide an alternative site to the protestors who have been demonstrating against the CAA for the past 2 months.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, pointed out that Sanjay Hedge is against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and that it was also the case with the Shaheen Bagh protestors.
It is notable here that lawyer Sanjay Hegde has been caught spreading fake news several times. After Twitter suspended his account, he had even stated that he will take Twitter to the international court.
Justice Kaul noted, “One section of the society holds one point of view, its fine, they want to voice it in a form of like a social build-up, its acceptable but the limited question is the place which it can be done,”
Justice Joseph added, “We aren’t saying people don’t have the right to protest even after the law is under challenge before this court but road can’t be blocked.
On February 10, the apex court observed that there must be a designated site to carry out such protests and raised concerns about whether public inconvenience can be caused by blocking roads indefinitely. A Bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde also took suo motu cognisance over the death of a 4-month-old in Shaheen Bagh.