Lawyers marching to Jantar Mantar detained outside Supreme Court; Bar Association writes to CJI

New Delhi: The agitation under way in Delhi demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and against alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is now drawing support from lawyers as well. On Saturday, senior and women lawyers who began a peaceful march from the Supreme Court premises towards Jantar Mantar were detained by Delhi Police, it has been alleged.

The Supreme Court Bar Association has expressed strong displeasure over the action. The association has written to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, seeking his intervention. In the letter, the body asked the Chief Justice to step in over the action taken during the lawyers' peaceful protest. The Bar Association also asked that the incident be taken seriously.

According to the information available, lawyers in black coats set out for Jantar Mantar from Gate 'C' of the Supreme Court and the Bhagwan Das Road area. Police put up barricades and stopped them after about 100 yards. Several senior and women lawyers were part of the march. It is alleged that police used force to detain the protesters.

Separately, police are reported to have detained more than 400 activists of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), who were marching towards Jantar Mantar from A.K. Gopalan Bhavan in Gole Market. Office-bearers of the organisations claim that they were put in police buses and taken elsewhere.

According to SFI national president Adarsh M. Saji, police began detaining activists as soon as the march started at 10 am. Police deployment had been increased across the area.

The students continued to shout slogans inside the police bus. One protesting student said the fight was to defend democracy and that the agitation would continue until the demand to remove Gyanesh Kumar from office was met. The protesters have questioned the Central government and the election machinery over the alleged irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls and the transparency of the electoral process.

Several people have been reported detained earlier in connection with the agitation. It has been claimed that CJP founder Abhijit Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were taken off a flight and detained at Delhi airport. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee is also reported to have been detained from Gurugram and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia from Chandigarh.

With lawyers, students and political activists joining in, the agitation in Delhi appears to be taking a wider shape. A controversy is likely to arise in legal and political circles over the police action. All eyes are now on what stand the office of the Chief Justice takes on the Supreme Court Bar Association's letter and on what happens next in the agitation.