New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka on Wednesday, October 21, withdrew from the Delhi High Court their plea challenging the extension of their judicial custody by a Special Executive Magistrate (SEM).
Justice Subramonium Prasad told the counsel appearing for the CJP co-conveners to await the outcome of the hearing scheduled before the SEM later in the day, and approach the appellate court if their grievance continues.
While directing Das and Ranka to withdraw the case, the judge clarified that he has not made observations on the merits of the matter.
“I am not saying good bad or anything. There might be persons not in your control and they do things. You could have started with something you say is peaceful. For that purpose you take police permission which is to prevent unwanted persons who join your group and spoil your name,” the bench noted orally.
During the hearing, the court observed that a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution was not an appropriate remedy in this case.
‘You are not Gen Z’
It also flagged the organisation’s change in causes, referring to CJP’s earlier protests in July against NEET paper leaks. Noting that Das and Ranka are 27 and 31 years, respectively, the court said, “Then you are not Gen Z. What age of people are millennials? It was a student protest, children were there, but now its another cause.”
“Next question is who are you? What is your association? What is the purport of the association? When there is apprehension of breach of peace and tranquility, all these questions will assume importance,” the bench observed.
Justice Prasad added that when the causes of an organisation keep changing, the magistrate is bound to consider such questions. “Whether such group of persons whose causes keep on changing…the question is when magistrate goes into question of breach of tranquility, such questions are to be considered.”
It advised the two CJP leaders to keep the debate in an “appropriate proceeding, not now when the issue is only insistence on bond.”
CJP seek urgent hearing
The case was taken up by the court after the CJP leaders sought an urgent hearing in the High Court, which is shut due to the Dussehra break.
Das and Ranka assailed the SEM’s October 19 order remanding them to two days’ judicial custody in the high court.
They were taken into custody on October 13 after they allegedly climbed over a locked gate to enter Jantar Mantar, which had earlier been denotified as a designated protest site, and were sent to five-day judicial custody.
A newly-appointed Special Executive Magistrate at Mandir Marg police station on Monday ordered their judicial remand till October 21 after they were produced before him.
Along with other CJP workers, Das and Ranka displayed the national flag at the site and shouted slogans against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar before being detained and placed under preventive arrest on October 13.
