Delhi Police have assured Delhi High Court that they would not take any coercive action against the nine people who had protested against the Supreme Court’s order on the relocation of stray dogs to shelters, provided they cooperate in the investigation.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma took the assurance on record and directed the police to file a status report on the petition seeking to quash the FIR against the nine individuals. The matter has been listed for further hearing on February 6.
The case against the nine individuals stemmed from a protest in a park in Delhi’s Connaught Place, where they had gathered on August 16 to protest the top court’s two-judge bench order. The police had booked them under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) dealing with the violation of a prohibitory order, causing hurt and acting with a common intention.
The nine individuals, who claimed to be animal lovers, have termed the police action unconstitutional and illegal. “Peaceful protest cannot be criminalised, and lawful dissent cannot be equated with unlawful assembly. Invocation of the coercive criminal process in such circumstances is arbitrary, mala fide, and unsustainable,” the petitioners said.
They also submitted that no public notice against a gathering was issued in advance to inform them that even a peaceful or symbolic protest was prohibited.
“In the absence of any such promulgation, the invocation of penal provisions for alleged violation of prohibitory orders is ex facie illegal, unsustainable, and amounts to a colourable exercise of power,” the petitioners said.
They were represented by advocates Tanmaya Mehta, Karan Nagrath, Rashmi Gogoi and Niharika Nagrath, among others. The top court’s August 11 order directing the removal of all stray dogs in the national capital to shelters had evoked outrage across the country.