SC to hear Shaheen Bagh matter on March 23; asks people to cool down

The Supreme Court has fixed March 23 as the date for further hearing in the Shaheen Bagh road blockade matter. The apex court refused to pass an interim order. The court was hearing pleas seeking removal of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters from Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area. 

The Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph said thay while the incidents of violence in Delhi are "unfortunate", the Court will not expand the scope of the case before it which pertains specifically to blocking of road on account of Shaheen Bagh protest.

SC said it is time for everyone to cool down and that protestors need to find an alternative area to sit for protests. The bench said it will examine the interlocutor's report in the meanwhile.

Thousands of people, including a large number of Muslim women, have been staging a sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh area since mid-December last year against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The apex court had adjourned the hearing in the matter after the interlocutors appointed by it submitted their report in a sealed cover on Monday.

The two amicus curiae submitted their report in a sealed cover to the apex court. "We will go through the report," Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had said.

The Supreme Court-appointed mediators — senior advocates Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran — had last week engaged with the anti-CAA protestors for shifting the venue from Shaheen Bagh.

The top court had last week appointed senior advocates -- Sanjay Hedge, Sadhana Ramachandran and former bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah -- as interlocutors to talk to the protestors here and urge them to clear the road and protest at an alternate site.