The Delhi High Court on Monday observed that there is no absolute bar on police entering a university without prior permission from the institution's authorities [Manoj Dhiryan & Ors v. Union of India & Ors].

Relying on a report by the National Human Rights Commission, a Division Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain also said that the Delhi Police entered Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019 only after the situation outside and around the University had escalated.

"Thus, the police did not enter the University premises at the outset to deal with an otherwise peaceful assembly confined to the campus. The entry took place after the situation outside and around the University had escalated and the crowd had moved into the campus. The police intervention, therefore, has to be viewed in the prevailing law-and-order situation which had developed at that time."

The Court said that police cannot be expected to remain outside when immediate intervention is required to deal with violence, cognisable offences or a rapidly developing law-and-order situation.

"Ordinarily, the University authorities should be informed and, wherever the circumstances permit, consulted before police intervention...This requirement cannot, however, operate as an absolute condition in every situation. An immediate threat to life or property, an unlawful assembly, the commission of cognizable offences or a rapidly developing law-and-order situation may leave no time for prior communication or permission. The police may also receive information from sources other than the institution. This, however, does not place police action beyond scrutiny."

The Bench rendered these findings while dismissing a batch of petitions seeking a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the alleged crackdown by the Delhi Police inside Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019 during the anti-CAA march.

After considering the arguments, the Bench said that the situation had first escalated outside and around the university, where incidents of stone-pelting, burning of buses and other vehicles, damage to public property and attacks on police personnel took place.

Police were attempting to push the protesters back when some of the protesters moved into the university campus. It was thereafter that the police entered the premises, the Court noted.

It added that the right to peaceful protest is not in dispute, but these rights do not extend to causing any violence or destruction of property.

"Once a gathering ceases to remain peaceful and the circumstances disclose violence, commission of cognizable offences or a threat to life or property, the police cannot be expected to remain inactive or as mute spectator merely because the gathering is taking place within a University campus."

[Read Judgment]