Can four-month old child go for protest? Supreme Court over infant's death at Shaheen Bagh
New Delhi/IBNS: Days after a bravery award winning child urged Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde to give direction against the participation of kids in anti-CAA agitations, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to both the Centre and Delhi government over the death of a four-month old child at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh where several women as well as men are protesting against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), media reports said.
Coming down heavily upon the lawyers who was representing the mothers of children sitting in protest, the Supreme Court asked, "Can a four-month-old child go for the protest?"
Mohammed Jahan, 4, had died during the uninterrupted anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh on Jan 30.
A 12-year old bravery award winner named Zen Sadavarte last week wrote a letter to CJI Bobde seeking a directive against the participation of kids in anti-CAA agitations.
The Class 7 student in the letter wrote the incident was a violation of the deceased child's right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Zen, who had received the award in 2019 for guiding 17 people to safety when a fire broke out at Parel’s Crystal Tower in Mumbai, further said the inclusion of children and infants in the protests amounts to "torture" and "cruelty".
Hundreds of Muslim women and men are camped for more than a month in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, blocking roads, to protest against the contentious CAA which aims to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi but not Muslim refugees who came to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015.
The Supreme Court on Monday also issued a notice to both the government and Delhi Police and noted that there can't be any indefinite protests on a public road.
"The protests have gone on for a long time. There can't be an indefinite period of protests in a common area. It might be in an area identified," said the Supreme Court as reported by NDTV.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
