Chief Justice Surya Kant said that there was no petition filed seeking urgent hearing on police brutality against students.
Kant said that only a representation was sent to court.
Kant said that the media reporting on the issue was reckless.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Friday dismissed media reports claiming he had refused an urgent hearing on a plea challenging the police action against students during the July 20 'Sansad Chalo' march.
Clarifying the matter, Justice Kant said no such petition had been filed before the court and that what was submitted was merely a representation.
What Did The Supreme Court Say?
Kant said that the media ‘recklessly’ reported that he had denied urgent hearing of the plea.
"In the last two days, a completely false statement was made that a matter was filed, and the media is absolutely free from all responsibility and falsely reporting that the Chief Justice refused to list the matter," The Hindu quoted him as saying.
While lawyers were mentioning their cases for urgent listing, Kant meanwhile continued, “Till morning 10 a.m., not a single page has been filed. It was one representation...sent by Mishra or someone. How can I treat the representation as a writ petition? And people start recklessly reporting this."
What is the storm all about?
On July 22, a lawyer approached Kant seeking urgent hearing of police action against the protesters during the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) Sansad chalo march. "I have the videos as well regarding police brutality... If it can be listed tomorrow (Thursday)... students are there," the lawyer had said.
The lawyer alleged that the students were subjected to police crackdown during the march. Responding to the request, Kant said that the bench was not interested in watching the videos.
"We are not interested in videos, we don't have time to watch... We don't want to watch videos," he added. As the lawyer reiterated his request that the bench have a look at the video evidence he had of the claim, Kant responded, "Don't waste our time. We don't want to watch any videos."
Protest Goes On
The Supreme Court said it would monitor the Centre's efforts to curb NEET paper leaks after the government informed the court that stringent measures were being taken to strengthen the examination system, the central demand behind the 'Sansad Chalo' march.
Referring to the temporary steps adopted to conduct the exam securely, the apex court observed that such ad hoc measures had plagued the system for years.
The CJP continues to stage a sit-in at Jantar Mantar over the NEET paper leak. Protesters demand Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's immediate resignation, pointing out that neither Nadda, who had met two CJP representatives on July 20, nor Singh had spoken about their core demand regarding Pradhan’s sacking.
