India's Mass Detentions of Electoral Reform Protesters; Supreme Court Halts Detentions, Orders Metro Restoration; India Rebukes UN 'Double Standards'

New Delhi — India's Supreme Court on Sunday held a rare special hearing on mass detentions connected to electoral reform protests, ordering authorities not to illegally detain peaceful protesters and requiring the restoration of Delhi Metro and rail services as well as the removal of prohibitory notices posted under Section 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure around the court's premises. According to Deutsche Welle reporting, the court simultaneously ordered that lawyers and journalists not be obstructed from carrying out their duties.

The court stated explicitly in its directions that, except in accordance with legal procedure, the detention of protesters — 'particularly protesters outside the areas specified by the prohibition order' — should not be carried out. The court also ordered the removal of Section 163 prohibition notice boards in the vicinity of the court complex to ensure that 'access to judicial remedies remains unimpeded.' Additionally, rail and metro services should be restored unless genuinely necessary to maintain public order.

The context for the above directions was a large-scale protest that erupted in Delhi on Saturday targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. According to Deutsche Welle reporting, Delhi police stated that approximately 2,500 demonstrators were detained in Delhi on Saturday, in addition to 1,000 preventive detainees from the previous night; Ajinkya Shinde, the ad hoc protest leader of the youth movement 'Cockroach Janta Party' (hereinafter referred to as CJP) that organized the protest, claimed that more than 15,000 people had been detained across India, including four former state chief ministers, Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi, and Bollywood actor Imran Khan. The precise nationwide detention total cannot currently be independently verified.

Three core CJP leaders — Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka — were detained as soon as their plane landed in New Delhi and were released after approximately 24 hours in custody, but were subject to a condition that they 'not breach the peace' for one year and were required to post bail of 50,000 rupees. The CJP stated that the leaders were unable to consult lawyers during detention. Following his release, Saurav Das held a press conference accusing the police of arriving 'like a mafia don' and 'kidnapping' him.

The central dispute surrounding the protest is the nationwide voter verification process 'Special Intensive Revision' (SIR) launched last year. Deutsche Welle cited a previous report from The Indian Express indicating that approximately 130 million names have been removed from voter rolls to date; the report cited unnamed sources stating that two other members of the Election Commission had raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months regarding voter registration, deletions and restorations, and control over voter data, with one member complaining that the Election Commission was acting 'without authorization and unlawfully' and that its actions 'contradicted the written advice of two members.' Gyanesh Kumar himself has not publicly responded to the allegations. The Election Commission stated that all decisions were made in accordance with law and that differences among members were a routine part of the decision-making process. The opposition and critics have accused SIR of being used to systematically remove minority voters in service of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) electoral interests; the Election Commission has insisted that the procedure removes only deceased voters, those who have relocated, and duplicate registrants, while preventing so-called 'foreign illegal immigrants' from being included on the rolls.

In order to prevent protesters from reaching central Delhi, authorities on the eve of the protest shut down more than 50 Delhi Metro stations, cancelled multiple trains bound for the two main railway stations, and suspended mobile network services in central Delhi — an unusual step. Deutsche Welle reported that social media influencer Dhruv Rathee was detained at his Gurugram residence early Saturday morning and released that evening, but was conditioned on not attending further protests.

The same day, India's Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday publicly rejected a statement issued on Saturday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The OHCHR statement said: 'We are alarmed by reports of mass arrests of protesters, protest leaders, members of civil society organizations, lawyers and journalists before and after large-scale demonstrations in Delhi,' and called for 'the immediate and unconditional release of all those arbitrarily detained.'

India's Ministry of External Affairs, in its Sunday statement, termed the concerns 'baseless' and said they 'constitute unacceptable interference in India's internal affairs.' The statement simultaneously declared: 'India is the world's largest democracy, the right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed by the Constitution and is safeguarded by robust institutions, an independent judiciary and a free media.' The statement further accused the UN human rights body of adopting an 'extremely selective approach' and said that its 'double standards' would only 'erode the credibility of the body' and 'fuel a loss of confidence in multilateralism.' The statement also pointed out that the body had maintained silence on 'violent responses to protests' and 'law enforcement actions' in India's vicinity.

The CJP on Sunday issued a fresh call for peaceful protests. Saurav Das said at the press conference: 'This protest is not over. We will not back down, and we call on all Indian citizens: you must come forward and fight. You must take to the streets. Wherever you are, you must hold peaceful demonstrations.' He further stated: 'This system cannot continue to function in this way. This system is broken. This system is corrupt … it serves only two people.' Das named those referred to as Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. After his release, CJP founder Dipke posted on social media saying that Modi serving as prime minister 'is a disgrace to India' and described him as a 'coward' and a 'bully.'

As of Sunday, Modi himself had not directly responded to this weekend's protest events. He was on Sunday attending a series of events in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, including laying the foundation stone for development projects valued at over 130 billion rupees.

Modi's BJP has characterized the protests as an attempt to create a 'highly dangerous and grave situation.' BJP national president Nitin Nabin said on Saturday that the opposition alliance led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the CJP included, 'those within the country are competing to prove who is more anarchist.' BJP parliamentarian Bansuri Swaraj, at a press conference on Sunday, said that a competition to create anarchy was emerging between Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi, and that 'whether the Aam Aadmi Party or the Congress, both have been rejected by Indian voters.'

By Sunday afternoon, no large-scale gathering had yet emerged near the Jantar Mantar protest site in Delhi, but the ANI news agency reported that members of opposition student and youth organizations inside the inner ring of Connaught Place — adjacent to Jantar Mantar — had been detained. The CJP posted a series of videos on social media claiming fresh rounds of detentions and saying the protest 'has only just begun.'