SC-appointed interlocutors urge anti-CAA protesters to shift from Delhi's Shaheen Bagh as 'Holi gift'

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New Delhi: The interlocutors, Sanjay Hegde and Sadhna Ramachandran, appointed by Supreme Court to mediate with Shaheen Bagh protesters were at the site of protest on Tuesday (March 3, 2020) for the second round of talks. 

In a statement released after their mediation, they requested the protesters that with the oncoming festival of Holi they should embrace positive solutions for the best interest of the country and the constitution.

They urged the protestors to understand their role as responsible citizens under the Indian constitution and find solutions keeping in mind other fellow citizens. They said 'we interlocutors were not going to impose any decision on them, but rather expected solutions to emerge from their side', the statement read.

On Sunday (March 1), authorities had imposed Section 144 in Shaheen Bagh along with a heavy deployment of police personnel. Joint Commissioner DC Srivastava said the move was a precautionary measure, and that their aim was to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident from occurring.

The top court-appointed interlocutors had submitted their report in a sealed cover on Monday (February 24). Senior advocates Hegde and Ramachandran had engaged with the anti-CAA protestors for shifting the venue from Shaheen Bagh. 

The apex court will next hear the matter on March 23. 

Former bureaucrat and the third interlocutor, Wajahat Habibullah, in an affidavit to the apex court said that the Shahen Bagh protest is largely peaceful and blamed the police for the "unnecessarily blocking the roads". He also recommended that the government should speak to the protestors on CAA, NPR and NRC to sort out the issue. 

The matter reached the court after public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Nand Kishore Garg and Amit Sahni through their lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi, seeking appropriate directions to the Centre and others concerned for removal of protestors from the Shaheen Bagh.

At Shaheen Bagh, a large number of Muslim women have been staging a sit-in protest against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) since mid-December last year.