India’s Delhi High Court will hear a challenge to a police ban on a protest on Friday.
The petitioner is the youth wing of the Congress party.
The protest was planned at Jantar Mantar against the Chief Election Commissioner.
The police refused permission on the day of the planned protest.
The petitioner cites the constitutional right to assemble peacefully.
The Indian Youth Congress applied to Delhi Police on September 25 for a peaceful gathering of about 100 to 150 people.
It said it would accept lawful conditions on security, traffic management, discipline and public order.
Delhi Police communicated its rejection on October 1, the very day the demonstration was scheduled, according to Bar and Bench.
The plea argues that the refusal came too late despite repeated follow-ups with the police.
It argues that the police cannot turn a power to regulate a peaceful assembly into a power to prohibit it without an individualised and proportionate assessment.
It challenges what it calls a mechanical application of protest guidelines.
The plea invokes Articles 14, 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) of the Constitution, which cover equality, freedom of speech and the right to assemble peacefully.
The plea also relies on Supreme Court rulings that recognise the right to peaceful assembly.
Separately, a petitioner has asked the Supreme Court to examine the appointments of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, according to India Legal.
The reports available on October 8 did not include a response from Delhi Police to the plea.
On October 6, INDIA bloc MPs marched towards the Election Commission demanding the Chief Election Commissioner’s resignation.
The Delhi High Court agreed on Thursday, October 8, 2026, to hear a plea by the Indian Youth Congress against a Delhi Police order denying permission for a protest at Jantar Mantar.
Jantar Mantar, New Delhi (file image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
