SC interlocuters visit Shaheen Bagh to meet anti CAA protestors

Supreme Court-appointed interlocuters Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran interacted with the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters at Shaheen Bagh on Tuesday.

On February 17, the Supreme Court had appointed senior lawyers Hegde and Ramachandran, besides former CIC Wajahat Habibullah, to hold talks with protesters at Shaheen Bagh area to convince them to hold the agitation at an alternative site.

The interlocutors had submitted their reports to the SC in a sealed cover on February 24.

Thousands of people, the majority of them women, have been holding a sit-in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed NRC at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area since mid-December last year.

A PIL was filed by Nand Kishore Garg and Amit Sahni through their lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi seeking appropriate directions to the Centre and others for removal of protestors from Shaheen Bagh near Kalindi Kunj.

It stated that people in Shaheen Bagh are illegally protesting against the CAA 2019, by blocking the common and public road connecting Delhi to Noida.

The petition seeks appropriate direction to the respondents, including the Union of India (UOI) for laying down detailed, comprehensive and exhaustive guidelines relating to outright restrictions for holding protest/agitation leading to obstruction of the public place.

The apex court will be hearing the matter on March 23.