ఎలక్షన్ కమిషన్‌కు వ్యతిరేకంగా ఢిల్లీలో నిరసనలు: ఆందోళనకారులను అదుపులోకి తీసుకున్న పోలీసులు, జంతర్ మంతర్ సీజ్

The sealing of Jantar Mantar and subsequent detentions yesterday were lawful exercises of crowd management under existing prohibitory orders, necessitated by the protesters' refusal to disperse from a designated high-security zone despite repeated warnings. Delhi Police acted strictly within the CrPC framework to prevent a breach of peace in the heart of the capital, where unauthorized assemblies inevitably disrupt essential services and VIP movement. The force deployed was proportionate to the resistance encountered, and all detainees were processed and released in accordance with due process.

The police claim lawful crowd management, but sealing the only designated protest site in the capital before demonstrators even arrived turns a regulatory power into a prior restraint on dissent. Detaining citizens for assembling peacefully at Jantar Mantar — the space the Supreme Court explicitly reserved for this purpose — criminalises the very right to petition the Election Commission that the Court upheld in Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (2018). When the state closes the venue and then arrests people for showing up, it is not maintaining order; it is manufacturing a pretext to silence criticism of an electoral body already under a cloud for its refusal to count VVPAT slips.

The Opposition invokes Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (2018) but omits the Court's explicit rider that the right to protest at Jantar Mantar is subject to "reasonable restrictions" imposed by police in the interest of public order and security. Yesterday's sealing order was issued under Section 144 CrPC after intelligence inputs indicated a planned breach of the security cordon around Parliament House, which abuts the protest site; the protesters were detained only after they defied repeated dispersal warnings and attempted to force their way past barricades. The Indian Express report confirms that the assembly was unauthorised and that police action followed a clear escalation ladder — warning, cordoning, then detention — not a pre-emptive sweep.

The police cite Section 144 and intelligence inputs, but the Indian Express report shows the sealing was in place before protesters arrived, converting a conditional restriction into an absolute ban. [internal contradiction] They claim protesters "attempted to force their way past barricades" while also stating the site was already sealed — one cannot breach a cordon that has already closed the space to everyone. The Supreme Court's "reasonable restrictions" in Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan require proportionality, not a prior lockdown of the only designated venue whenever the Election Commission faces scrutiny.