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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside a trial court’s order discharging student activists Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Asif Tanha, Chanda Yadav and seven others in the 2019 Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) violence case.
An FIR had been lodged against the accused, alleging offences of rioting and unlawful assembly during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens in Jamia Nagar in December 2019.
However, in its February 4 order, the trial court discharged all 11, stating that the police had made them “scapegoats” and that dissent has to be encouraged, not stifled.
In her 90-page judgment on Tuesday, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said, “Though, in a democracy, there can be no question of dissent being suppressed or the fundamental right of freedom of expression by peaceful means being infringed, however, there is no place for violent collective action to register one’s anguish against ideological differences or resistance to a government policy.”
Justice Sharma also expunged remarks made by the trial court about the accused being made “scapegoats”, saying, “At this stage, it would not have been clear to the learned trial court itself also as to whether it was the peaceful dissent suppressed by the State or the State was trying to curb the menace of violence and disturbance in the area.”
The court ordered that eight accused, including Mr. Imam, Ms. Zargar and Ms. Yadav, be charged with offences including rioting, unlawful assembly and causing damage to public property, while three others, including Mr. Tanha, be charged with unlawful assembly. The court’s judgment came on an appeal filed by the Delhi police against the trial court’s February 4 order.
“The beginning of pelting of stones, violent insistence on marching to a curfew-bound area, marked the beginning of the end of the peaceful protest,” Justice Sharma said.
The court also said that while the right to freedom of expression cannot be criminalised, the threat to people’s lives and public and private property “will certainly attract criminal law”.
While discharging the 11 accused last month, the trial court had said, “The police were unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind the commission of the offence but managed to rope the persons herein as scapegoats”. The court had also reminded the police “not to blur the lines between dissenters and rioters”.
