Supreme Court to hear petitions filed against road jam by anti-CAA protesters in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday (February 24) hear the petitions filed against the road blockade at Shaheen Bagh in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In the last hearing, the apex court had appointed senior counsel Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran as negotiators to hold negotiation with the protesters to lift their blockade. 

Earlier, the top court had said that though people have a fundamental right to protest "peacefully and lawfully", it was troubled by the blocking of a public road at Shaheen Bagh as it might lead to a "chaotic situation".

Former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, however, has told the Supreme Court the protest at Shaheen Bagh against the CAA was peaceful and inconvenience being caused to commuters was due to barricades "unnecessarily" put by police on roads far away from the site.

Habibullah had visited the protest site pursuant to the direction by a bench of Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph. The bench is scheduled to hear the matter today for removal of protestors and ensuring smooth traffic flow in the area.

In his affidavit filed in the top court, Habibullah contended that "Shaheen Bagh stands tall as a firm example of peaceful dignified dissent, more so in the face of various instances of state-sponsored violence on similar dissents across India."

The same stand has been taken by social activist Syed Bahadur Abbas Naqvi and Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad in their joint affidavit filed in the apex court in the matter. Habibullah, Azad and Naqvi have jointly filed an intervention application in the apex court which is seized of the matter.

Naqvi and Azad, in their joint affidavit, have alleged that "the present ruling dispensation, at the behest of its political masters, had devised a strategy of extinguishing these protests by falsely attributing violence and acts of vandalism to peaceful protestors".

The affidavit stated that the Delhi Police has closed 5 routes around Shaheen Bagh which is causing problems to the people, if the police open these paths then the traffic will become normal. 

Meanwhile, pro and anti-CAA groups clashed on Sunday near Jaffrabad in northeast Delhi after a large number of people who have been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act blocked a road, while similar sit-ins started in several others part of the national capital.

The police, however, fired tear gas shells as members of the two groups pelted stones at each other in Maujpur, soon after a gathering called by BJP leader Kapil Mishra who demanded that the police remove anti-CAA protestors within three days.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in Jaffrabad area and a large number of security personnel deployed as hundreds of people, mostly women, who had been protesting gainst the CAA, blocked a road near the metro station since the Saturday evening, demanding a rollback of the Citizenship Act.