Akshat Tripathi, a 20-year-old student, was shocked to receive a notice after he allegedly participated in the Cockroach Janta Party protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in July-August. The notice was revoked after the Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned how the Greater Noida Executive Magistrate could issue the notice. “How did the magistrate dare to issue a notice when we have already annulled, and we have directed that on already registered (FIRs), no action will be taken,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said.
“I do not have any criminal history. They have levelled all false allegations — allegations that cannot be substantiated. Even if they have cancelled it, I want to know the reasons and the basis on which the notice was issued. How can this suddenly come to an officer’s mind after two months of the protest,” he told The Indian Express. “We will fight to the end,” he said.
Tripathi, who hails from Allahabad, is the secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) unit in Gautam Buddha University.
A police report accused Tripathi of “spreading anti-government, misleading statements among other university students and provoking them”, saying this could “disrupt public peace”. Citing this report, the Greater Noida Executive Magistrate, who served the notice, noted that “there is a strong possibility of the opposite party breaching the peace”.
Countering this, Tripathi said that while he had participated in the protest at Jantar Mantar on July 20 and also got injured in the lathicharge, he had not been to his university since May 25. “How can they blame me for instigating people when I have not visited my university since May 25,” he said, adding that he left the hostel after the university declared holidays for two months in May-end.
“After the vacations got over, our classes were held online for a month since the administration said there was maintenance work going on in our college building. The notice says I provoked students, how is that possible? For almost the whole of July, I was interning at the Allahabad High Court,” he said.
Tripathi said offline classes only resumed this week, on September 7.
He reached the Capital on Wednesday morning, and filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court. “No such material has been disclosed to the petitioner, in violation of the requirement that a person proceeded against under such provisions be informed of the substance of the information against him so as to enable an effective show of cause,” he said in his petition.
According to Tripathi, he received the notice on his WhatsApp around 8 pm on September 4. The notice sought a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh for maintaining peace, and summoned him to Surajpur, in Greater Noida, the next day itself, he said.
On September 5, Tripathi wrote back to the magistrate stating that he had not been provided any direct and verifiable basis for the allegations against him. “It is not appropriate to take such action against an individual based solely on suspicion,” he said in his reply.
In an official statement on Wednesday, the Noida police said: “The notice was issued in connection with the protest demonstration, in the context of Sections 126 and 135 of the BNSS, requiring him to execute a bond for maintaining peace and public order. As soon as the matter came to the notice of senior officials, the flawed issued notice was cancelled on September 5, 2026”. It said departmental proceedings against personnel involved in the issuance of the notice had already been initiated.
Sections 126 and 135 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) are preventive legal provisions used by executive magistrates to maintain public peace and order.
The police statement said the Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate was not involved in the matter. “Since police commissionerate system is in force in Gautam Buddha Nagar, the notice in question was issued by the Office of Magistrate III, Gautam Buddha Nagar,” it said.
Recalling the July protest, Tripathi said he, along with 15 others, boarded a train from Allahabad to Delhi on the morning of July 19, a day before the march to Parliament called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
“I had to convince my parents to let me go… they were scared for my safety…. I assured them that I would be safe, but when I was injured during the protest, they got worried,” he said.
“Many of my close friends were among those who sat for the NEET-UG paper which got scrapped. Some had taken a gap year and got high scores. I wanted to support all the NEET aspirants… Somebody should take accountability, and I wanted to ensure that through my support,” he said.
“After I got the notice, my parents fear for my safety, but they have confidence in me. The SFI has stood by me since the first day,” he said.
Akshat Tripathi is a BA LLB student at the Gautam Buddha University in Noida 
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