New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday, May 25, declined to urgently list two petitions linked to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – a satirical social media movement that briefly went viral before its handles were suspended – telling one of the petitioners not to take the matter too emotionally.
Advocate NK Goswami mentioned the first petition before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, submitting that despite the CJI’s clarification, a “distorted and malicious narrative” was being kept alive. The CJI was having none of it. “Don’t take it so sentimentally,” he told the lawyer.
Second petition seeks CBI probe
A second petition, also filed in the backdrop of the CJP controversy, was mentioned separately by another advocate seeking urgent listing. This plea sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into the use of fake law degrees and asked the court to prohibit the monetisation of oral observations made during court proceedings, arguing that judicial remarks were being deployed for publicity campaigns.
The CJI said there was no grave urgency and that the matter would be listed in due course.
How it started
The CJP controversy traces back to May 15, when the CJI made remarks during a hearing on senior designation for a lawyer, equating those who attack institutions under the guise of online activism with “cockroaches” and “parasites.” The comments were widely reported as a broadside against unemployed youth, triggering a social media backlash and the birth of the satirical CJP, which amassed millions of followers within days before its handles were taken down.
On May 16, the CJI issued a strongly worded clarification saying he was “pained” by the coverage, stressing that his remarks were directed specifically at those entering the legal profession through “fake and bogus degrees” and had been “misquoted by a section of the media.”
