Top Court’s Rant About Student Notice: “How Dare A Magistrate Do That?”

The Greater Noida Executive Magistrate’s notice to a student regarding their involvement in the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests in July infuriated the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The Supreme Court had vacated all FIRs against students for the CJP protests and prohibited any further coercive action against any student, hence the Court questioned how the Executive Magistrate could issue the notice.

“How could the magistrate issue the notice? Our order was clear that no coercive action can be taken against any student across the country. How dare a magistrate do that?” an angry court asked.

The Supreme Court had earlier on September 1 used its extraordinary authority under Article 142 of the Constitution to dismiss all student-related lawsuits resulting from the CJP demonstrations. The court said that FIRs filed in relation to the protests between July 20 and July 25 in all states and Union territories would be closed for all reasons and would not be investigated or pursued.

Additionally, the court had ordered that no student be subjected to new legal action regarding the protests.

Senior attorney Bishwajit Bhattacharyya brought the Greater Noida student’s case to the court’s attention. Surya Kant, Chief Justice of India, stated that the court would ask executive magistrates and the Gautam Buddh Nagar district to explain the notice given to the student on September 4. The court was informed that the notice given to Gautam Buddh University second-year student Akshat Tripathi on September 4 was withdrawn the following day. It accused Tripathi of instigating students to participate in the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar and disseminating anti-government material.

Advocate Bhattacharya called the occurrence a “experiment with students of India” and asked the court to step in to stop similar incidents from happening again. The Chief Justice agreed with Bhattacharya and expressed surprise over the magistrate’s action. “We are surprised how an executive magistrate or a district magistrate can issue a notice when our September 1 order was clear that no action can be taken against our youth for participating in the protest,” remarked the CJI.