“You [State] have made it a war-like situation,” observed Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Govind Mathur after seeing the photographs of the clash between Aligarh Muslim University students and the police on the intervening night of December 15-16.
The observation was made when the two-member Bench was hearing the criminal writ petition filed by advocate Aman Khan. He was in the three-member team, the first to visit the campus after the clash that left four with serious injuries.
“We presented the High Court photographic and video evidence and asked for a judicial inquiry into the police excesses,” Mr. Khan, an alumnus of AMU and a member of Human Rights Law Network, told The Hindu .
The court has issued notices to the Centre and the State government and short counters have been called from the IG (Law and Order), SSP Aligarh and the Vice Chancellor of AMU. For any detentions, Mr. Khan said the Chief Justice has asked to file habeas corpus immediately.
“The CJ said if students can’t come, their families can approach,” he said.
He said when his lawyer Fazal Abadali raised concern over the preservation of evidence, particularly the CCTV footage, the Chief Justice observed none could destroy it. The next date of hearing has been listed for January 2, 2020.
‘Positive step’
“The government advocate wanted it to be listed on the 6th, but the CJ refused,” Mr. Khan said, adding that it was a positive step towards securing justice for the students who were subjected to severe lathi-charge and rubber bullets and pellets.
