Public Interest Litigation filed by law graduate, Harmanpreet Singh seeking release of those 'illegally detained' by the police during tractor parade has been dismissed by Delhi High Court. The court has ordered Delhi Police to complete the investigation and take action in accordance with law.
While dismissing the plea, court said, "no relief without entering into merits of FIRs and Investigation." It added, "Within 24 hours, the arrested persons will have to be produced before the nearest magistrate."
The divisional bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh noted that this "appears to be a publicity interest litigation."
The petitioner, Singh said, "people were illegally detained from the Singhu, Ghaziabad and Tikri borders, in the absence of an FIR, thereby violating the basic fabric of liberty."
Singh added that Delhi Police in a statement on January 27 had said they had detained around 200 protesters in connection with the violence during the tractor parade on Republic day.
"Furthermore, through personal data collection, the petitioner has the names of 15 people out of the aforementioned set of persons, who have been missing and detained since 26 and 27 January, and despite a passage of over four days, no legally tenable reason has surfaced supporting such detention," it said.
The Supreme Court had already stayed the implementation
of farm laws on January 12. It also framed a committee to look into the
grievances of farmers over the contentious farm laws. However, farmers want the
repeal of laws. Moreover, the union government has also offered the protesting
farmers to put the laws in abeyance for 18 months but the farmers had rejected
it.