Proportion, not prohibition: the Supreme Court’s line on city-wide closures

The Supreme Court said on October 9 that Delhi’s Metro and trains cannot be shut down entirely ahead of the CJP protest, while allowing regulated movement; on October 10 entry and exit were limited at 45 Metro stations and mobile internet was cut near Kartavya Path.

The court’s reasoning was practical. It said an entire city cannot be shut down because of protests, and it pointed to the thousands of commuters who travel each day from Gurugram, Greater Noida and other NCR towns for work and education.

The order is a limit and not a veto. Authorities can still regulate movement, but restrictions must be proportionate, publicised and accompanied by a traffic advisory.

The government’s position, put by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, was that the measures were meant to maintain law and order, and an alternative protest site would be considered.

On the ground, the effects were wide: limited Metro access, an internet shutdown in the central zone, online classes and postponed exams.

The court said that an entire city cannot be shut down because of protests, according to The Quint.

It cited the thousands of commuters who travel every day from Gurugram, Greater Noida and other parts of the NCR to Delhi for work and education.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta defended the measures as meant to maintain law and order.

The Solicitor General told the bench that the competent authority would consider designating a place other than Jantar Mantar for peaceful protests.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi and Prashant Bhushan argued against the restrictions, and Singhvi said that preventive measures of this scale could not be justified when no incident had occurred.

The order does not strike down the restrictions outright, and authorities can still regulate the movement of Metro and trains.

On October 10, entry and exit were limited at 45 Metro stations until 6 pm, and interchange was available everywhere except at New Delhi station, according to Careerindia.

Delhi Metro station (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0