Supreme court to hear plea against Shaheen Bagh's anti-CAA protest on February 17

Image courtesy: IANS

The Supreme Court will hear the petition filed against the sit-in protest against the CAA at Shaheen Bagh on Monday (February 17).

In the previous hearing on February 10, the court had maintained that people are entitled to protest but they have to do so in an area designated for agitation. "There has to be an area for protest and one can't block the entire road or the city," the court said. 

The court in the last hearing had issued notices to Centre, Delhi government and state police on pleas seeking removal of protesters from Shaheen Bagh and sought a reply on the matter within a week.

The PIL, filed by Dr Nand Kishore Garg and Amit Sahni through their lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi, sought appropriate directions to the Centre and others for removal of protesters from Shaheen Bagh near Kalindi Kunj. It said that people in Shaheen Bagh are illegally protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, by blocking the common and public road connecting Delhi to Noida.

The protests at Shaheen Bagh gained nationwide attention due to a continued anti-CAA sit-in by people, especially Muslim women against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register and National Register of Citizens. The peaceful demonstration has been underway for almost two months now.  

Meanwhile, Shaheen Bagh protesters decided to march towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence to meet with him hold discussions over CAA. But the marchers were stopped by the Delhi Police who clarified that they cannot allow the agitators to meet Shah in a large group but a delegation of the demonstrators would be let through.

Shah had in a television interview said that he is open to holding discussions with anyone over the CAA, including the protesters of Shaheen Bagh.

The Citizenship Amendment Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and took refuge in India on or before December 31, 2014.

After the Parliament gave its nod to the Citizenship Amendment Bill in December last year protests rocked several parts of the country many of which turned violent.