The Delhi High Court on Thursday declined to restrain the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and its founder Abhijeet Dipke from holding a protest at Connaught Place Central Park on October 16. However, the court recorded the police's assurance that all possible measures would be taken to regulate and control the group's activities.
A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma was hearing a petition filed by a Connaught Place vendor seeking directions to the police to regulate the protest in accordance with the existing law laid down by the Supreme Court.
Also read: CJP announces fresh protests on October 16 in Delhi's CP with 'Lehra do Tiranga' call
The petitioner's senior counsel argued that traders and vendors would be "on the streets" if they lost another weekend to closures caused by protests in central Delhi during the festive season.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma told the court that measures had been taken to control the CJP's activities and assured it that the petitioner's concerns would be addressed. The bench took the assurance on record.
When the petitioner's senior counsel pressed for a "specific" direction to restrain the CJP, the bench responded, "Don't insist. We have passed the order."
The matter was listed before the bench after the court agreed earlier in the day to hear the petition on an urgent basis.
While mentioning the matter in the morning, the petitioner's senior counsel had argued that a protest had been called in the heart of Connaught Place Central Park, claiming that the petitioner was being targeted. The counsel said the location was not a protest site and that closures had already begun.
"This is the Dussehra weekend. This protest has to be stopped," the senior counsel had said.
Dipke has called on "patriots" to assemble at Central Park in Delhi's business hub Connaught Place on Friday with the national flag. He alleged that CJP members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka had been "jailed for unfurling the Tricolour".
The call for the protest came on the same day that Das and Ranka were sent to five-day judicial custody and lodged in Tihar Jail. They were accused of violating their peace bonds and trespassing into Jantar Mantar, which has been denotified as a protest area.
Delhi has witnessed large-scale protests by opposition parties, student groups and civil society members since June-July this year.