Delhi High Court on Friday refused to hear an urgent petition related to law and order concerns ahead of a planned protest in national capital connected to digital movement known as Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and the petition was mentioned before a vacation bench of Justices Saurabh Banerjee and Amit Sharma by counsel for Save India Foundation who sought an immediate hearing.
However the bench refused to list the matter for urgent consideration.
The plea was linked to a protest planned for June 6 at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and the protest has been announced by Cockroach Janta Party a youth driven online movement that has gained wide attention on social media in recent weeks and according to earlier announcements by group’s spokespersons the protest aims to demand resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The movement has raised concerns over alleged examination related irregularities including paper leak claims issues linked to NEET-UG and problems in CBSE evaluation system.
The petition filed before court had raised concerns about possible crowd related risks and disruption at key public locations and it sought preventive and crowd control measures at sensitive points including Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), metro stations and major highways while it also requested authorities to either regulate or relocate protest site to avoid disruption to essential services such as hospitals, railway stations and court complexes.
The plea further claimed that the movement had potential to create large scale unrest and described it as an “unregulated contingent” influenced through digital platforms and it also raised concerns about online coordination and alleged involvement of overseas based actors though these claims have not been independently verified.
The court however did not take up the matter for urgent hearing and declined to list it.
The Cockroach Janta Party referred to as CJP is a relatively new online based movement that has grown rapidly on social media and it is often described as a satire driven or youth led campaign that has transitioned into real world mobilisation and according to its spokespersons this movement has attracted millions of followers in a short period.
Reportedly earlier CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke had called on supporters to join him at Delhi Airport on June 6 and this led to speculation about a possible large gathering at airport ahead of protest at Jantar Mantar.
However the situation later changed.
In a clarification issued by the group CJP said that gathering at airport would not be practical and could cause inconvenience to passengers and security agencies and the organisation then requested supporters not to come to the airport and the group also stated that Abhijeet Dipke would instead proceed to seek permission from police at Parliament Street Police Station in Delhi for holding the protest at Jantar Mantar.
The movement also said it wanted the protest to remain peaceful and lawful and added that it did not want to create inconvenience for public or security forces and urged supporters to maintain discipline and according to spokesperson Vijeta Dahiya the decision regarding protest permissions is part of the organisation’s internal planning where he also expressed hope that authorities would allow demonstration to proceed peacefully at designated site.
At present the planned protest at Jantar Mantar remains scheduled for June 6 while Delhi High Court has refused to intervene at this stage and the situation continues to be monitored by authorities due to the large online following of the movement and the scale of attention it has generated.
