New Delhi [India], July 17 : The Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to list for hearing on Monday a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging continuous police surveillance of protesters participating in the ongoing Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) agitation at Jantar Mantar.
The matter was mentioned before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Devender Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia by Senior Advocate Nandita Rao, who sought an urgent hearing. Accepting the request, the Bench agreed to list the matter on Monday.
The PIL has been filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh through Advocates Subhash Chandran K.R. and Anirudh K.P.
It challenges the alleged continuous surveillance of peaceful protesters by the Delhi Police at Jantar Mantar, where the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), led by student activist Abhijeet Dipke, has been staging a sit-in protest and hunger strike since June 20.
According to the petition, since the commencement of the protest, participants have been subjected to continuous photography, videography and round-the-clock monitoring, including through a permanent surveillance tower allegedly installed at the protest site. The plea contends that the surveillance is being carried out without any disclosed statutory authority, procedural safeguards or constitutionally permissible justification.
A key allegation in the petition is that police personnel threatened student protesters that photographs and videos taken at the protest site would be sent to their parents, guardians and educational institutions, with the apparent objective of discouraging them from participating in the protest. The petitioner claims these threats have created a chilling effect on the exercise of the constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.
The PIL further alleges that women protesters were continuously photographed and videographed even during heavy rainfall when they were forced to remain at the protest site in drenched clothing due to the lack of adequate shelter, amounting to an invasion of their privacy and dignity.
The plea contends that despite repeated requests, the authorities have failed to disclose any statutory provision or publicly available protocol authorising the surveillance or regulating the collection, storage, retention and dissemination of personal data generated through it. It argues that the surveillance violates the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and fails the constitutional tests of legality, necessity and proportionality laid down by the Supreme Court in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India.
Among its principal prayers, the petition seeks a declaration that continuous and intrusive mass surveillance of peaceful protesters is unconstitutional, suspension of all mass photography and videography at Jantar Mantar until the authorities establish a real and imminent threat to public order, disclosure of the legal basis and data-handling protocols governing the surveillance, destruction of unlawfully collected personal data, framing of guidelines regulating surveillance at peaceful assemblies, and constitution of an independent committee to examine the extent of surveillance undertaken at the protest site.