SC to Monday hear pleas on Shaheen Bagh protests hurting daily life

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on pleas seeking orders to clear New Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area, where protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, have allegedly caused inconvenience to people living in the vicinity. The matter is adjourned until Monday.

A bench comprising justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph said they will the hear the pleas after the Delhi assembly elections due on Saturday. The petitioner wanted the plea to be heard before the polls.

The petition was filed by advocate and activist Amit Sahni who alleged that protests in the Shaheen Bagh area disrupted daily life.

Earlier, Sahni had filed a plea in the Delhi High Court highlighting the same issues. The court, however, had scrapped the petition without any formal order and had asked concerned authorities to look into it.

"The respondents (Delhi police) cannot be permitted to behave like mute spectators particularly in a situation presently faced by persons living in the vicinity of Kalindi Kunj," according to the petition filed in the SC.

"No one can be permitted to occupy a public road for any reason whatsoever under the pretext of peaceful protest and that too for indefinite period to make others suffer for the same", the plea added.

The plea also said the protests caused severe inconvenience to the people as a common road was blocked by the protestors.