The Delhi High Court on Friday declined to grant urgent hearing in a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking preventive, regulatory, and crowd-control measures in relation to the protest being organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Delhi on June 6, Saturday.
The plea filed by NGO Save India Foundation was mentioned for urgent hearing before a vacation bench of Justices Saurabh Banerjee and Amit Sharma.
However, the Court refused to list the matter for hearing on an urgent basis.
The CJP movement was born out of the Supreme Court proceedings held on May 15 during which Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant expressed concerns over unemployed youth drifting away toward social media and RTI activism.
CJI Kant, in his oral comments, said that such youngsters "like cockroaches" were becoming parasites in society. CJI Kant later clarified that he was referring to those with fake degrees who engage in such activities.
The CJP was started by Abhijeet Dipke, a resident of Boston, USA. It uses political satire to comment on issues such as unemployment, institutional accountability and media freedom.
It has called for a gathering at Jantar Mantar on June 6 to protest the questions paper leaks associated with National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and controversies surrounding the CBSE board exam.
The CJP has sought resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
As per the plea, the gathering could cause law and order problems and disturb public peace and tranquility.
According to the petition,
"The operational methodology relies on assigning sequential tasks designed to foster institutional defiance and hostility against the ruling dispensation, which has rapidly escalated into explicit hate speech, calls to topple the democratically elected government, and open ultimatums demanding the immediate resignation of the Union Education Minister under threats of severe consequences if key organizers are arrested. Widely circulating media messages systematically invoke recent violent civil unrest and structural collapses witnessed in neighbouring democratic nations like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal."
Hence, the plea has sought immediate preventive, regulatory, and crowd-control measures at all entry corridors, including the Indira Gandhi International Airport, metro stations. and highway entry points
The plea has also sought directions to relocate the scheduled gathering to some other place so that public order is maintained, and vital infrastructure and emergency services can function without compromise to public safety.
The petitioner Save India Foundation has repeatedly invited the ire of the Delhi High Court for filing frivolous PILs against mosques, dargahs.