Refuting reports that he had failed to list for a hearing a petition seeking the Supreme Court’s intervention in the alleged police excesses against protesting students in Delhi, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, on Friday, clarified no petition had been filed and that the court had received only a lawyer’s representation.
Presiding over a three-judge bench, CJI Kant made the remarks during mentioning hours, when lawyers bring matters that require urgent listing to the court’s attention.
“In the last two days, a completely false statement was made that a matter has been filed. And the media is absolutely free from all responsibility, falsely reporting that the Chief Justice refused to list the matter,” the CJI said as Senior Advocate Shoeb Alam sought listing of an unrelated matter.
“Till morning 10 am, I tried to find out, no case had been filed… Not a single page has been filed in the Supreme Court. It was one representation… How can I treat the representation as a writ petition? And people start recklessly reporting this,” he added.
‘We don’t have time to watch’
CJI Kant was referring to Wednesday’s incident, where the Supreme Court declined to entertain a lawyer’s attempt to raise the issue.
The lawyer had only sent a letter and not filed any petition. Keeping this in mind, the CJI told him, “Don’t waste our time and your time. Your time is more valuable than ours.”
However, the lawyer pressed on. When the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, expressed its disinclination to hear him further, the lawyer said he had a collection of videos he would show if the bench permitted.
The CJI then said, “We are not interested in videos. We don’t have time to watch.”
The remarks came amid ongoing protests at Jantar Mantar over alleged NEET paper leaks and examination irregularities. The Cockroach Janta Party-led agitation turned violent earlier this week after police stopped protesters marching towards Parliament, using tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd.
Several protesters were detained, and the Delhi Police later registered multiple FIRs over the clashes.
