Thousands of Electoral Reform Protesters Detained in India; Supreme Court Issues Emergency Intervention; Foreign Ministry Strikes Back at UN 'Double Standards'

India's Supreme Court on Sunday urgently halted the illegal detention of electoral reform protesters, ordered the resumption of Delhi metro and rail services, and demanded that law enforcement not obstruct lawyers and journalists from carrying out their duties.

According to Deutsche Welle, this incident, centered around protests at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, targets Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of the Election Commission of India. Protesters demand his resignation over the "Special Intensive Revision" (SIR) voter verification process launched last year—which has so far removed approximately 130 million names from the rolls.

The Supreme Court, citing Section 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, noted that unless following legal procedures, peaceful gatherers outside the scope of prohibitory orders cannot be detained. The court also ordered the removal of Section 163 notice boards posted near its building complex to "avoid affecting the accessibility of judicial remedies," and emphasized that lawyers and journalists detained during Saturday's operations should no longer be obstructed from performing their duties.

The actual scale of detention is seriously disputed. Akinjya Hind, interim protest leader of the "Cockroach Janta Party" (CJP), said over 15,000 people nationwide were detained, including students. Deutsche Welle, citing The Hindu, reported that Delhi police said approximately 2,500 protesters were detained that day, with an additional approximately 1,000 people held preventively the previous night. Approximately 600 people in Mumbai were detained and later released; those detained included Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi and Bollywood actor Imran Khan. Indian media, citing police, said those detained were released Saturday evening.

Three CJP core figures—founder Abhijit Deepak, joint conveners Shoraf Das and Ashutosh Lanka—after arriving in New Delhi by plane on Saturday, were taken from the aircraft cabin. CJP accused police of "arriving like Mafia godfathers" and "kidnapping" the three to an unknown location, refusing them contact with lawyers during detention. The three were released after appearing at a Delhi executive magistrate court; Ratna Singh, the organization's legal head, said on social platform X that they were given a condition of "not disturbing peace for one year"; Asian News International (ANI), citing police, said the three paid 50,000 rupees (approximately 460 euros) bail to "maintain one year of peace and good behavior."

At a press conference after release, Das stated bluntly: "This system is broken, corrupt... It serves only two people." He was referring to Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and called on citizens nationwide to take to the streets and continue to resist peacefully. Lanka said: "Modi and Shah should be ashamed of treating this struggle as a war."

To prevent protesters from entering the central rally area, authorities on Friday ordered the closure of over 50 metro stations, cancelled multiple trains to the two major railway stations, and unusually suspended mobile internet service in central Delhi.

SIR is the root of this storm. This nationwide voter verification process, launched last year, has removed approximately 130 million names. The Indian Express revealed that two internal Election Commission members have filed at least 14 formal dissents in the past ten months regarding SIR-related decisions, covering voter registration, deletion and restoration, and control of voter data. The report cited one dissent stating that the Election Commission "violated the written recommendations of two members," and that actions were "unauthorized and illegal." The Election Commission responded that all decisions were legal and disagreements were routine in decision-making. The opposition and critics claim SIR has mass-purged minority voters and is being used as a tool for future elections by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

As domestic pressure escalated, India's Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday made a fierce response to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) statement issued Saturday. OHCHR said it was "deeply concerned" about the "mass detention of demonstrators, protest leaders, civil society organization members, lawyers and journalists" before and after the Delhi protests, demanding "immediate and unconditional release of all arbitrarily detained persons."

New Delhi rebutted that the concerns were "baseless," constituted "unacceptable interference in India's internal affairs," emphasized that India is "the world's largest democracy," that peaceful assembly is constitutionally guaranteed, and that law enforcement agencies "strictly act in accordance with law." The statement further said OHCHR takes an "extremely selective" stance on public issues, and noted that "violent responses to protests around India" and law enforcement actions in OHCHR's "neighboring region" have been "uncommented upon." The statement said this "double standard" is "eroding the credibility of the institution" and "weakening confidence in multilateralism." The statement did not specifically name which countries or events were being referred to.

BJP labeled CJP and the opposition alliance as "anarchists." BJP national president Nitin Nabin said Saturday: "There is currently a competition at home to see who can be more anarchist." BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said at a Sunday press conference that the opposition "is looking for excuses after losing elections."

Social media influencer Dhruv Rathee was detained at his Gurugram residence and later released; Reuters, citing anonymous Home Ministry officials, said his release was conditional on not joining further protests.

CJP announced Sunday that "the protest continues" and called for a new round of street action. Hind wrote on X: "Detain us, arrest us, do whatever you want! We will not be intimidated. This is just the beginning. We will continue to fight until all demands are met."