Supreme Court Schedules Special Hearing on Delhi Mass Detentions and Transport Shutdown

Supreme Court has slated a special hearing on Sunday to examine petitions against the large‑scale arrests and the city‑wide transport shutdown in Delhi. Around 2,500 protesters were taken into custody across the capital on Saturday, followed by an additional 1,000 people picked up in preventive raids overnight. The detentions included leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka – who were seized when their Air India flight landed and later moved to undisclosed locations. They are due to appear before the Executive Magistrate at Delhi Cantt Police Station at 9 a.m. on Sunday, according to CJP legal head Ratna Singh. The CJP has called for another round of protests on Sunday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged roll‑list deletions. The United Nations Human Rights Office expressed concern over the reported mass detentions, a statement the Indian government rejected. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, detained in Gurugram on Saturday, was released by local police early on Sunday. Mobile internet services were cut for ten hours within a 500‑metre radius at eight sites, described by the Home Ministry as a safety measure. Police turned several sports complexes and community centres into temporary holding cells, and a handful of journalists and lawyers were also detained; the latter were freed after Chief Justice Surya Kant intervened. A habeas corpus petition filed under Article 32 by CJP coverage coordinator Gaurav Bharti, represented by advocates Rajesh G. Inamdar and Shashwat Anand, seeks the release of the detained leaders, but its current status remains unclear. Legal experts have questioned the legality of detaining protesters beyond the area covered by the prohibitory order under Section 163 of the BNSS. Security forces were heavily deployed near Janpath, and protest activities shifted to locations such as Safdarjung flyover, Dilli Haat and Raj Ghat as central Delhi was sealed and public transport, schools and markets were closed.

Context

The crackdown reflects heightened tensions between youth protest groups and authorities, highlighting growing concerns over the use of emergency powers to limit democratic dissent.