On Monday, Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran, interlocutors appointed by the Supreme Court in the Shaheen Bagh case, submitted their report in a sealed cover to justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph. The contents of the report have not been made public, despite appeals from lawyers.
LiveLaw reported justice Kaul as telling lawyers, “It is only for us. Interlocutor’s role is different. It’s only for our record.” Ramachandran was reported as telling the court, “We are grateful for giving the opportunity. It has been a learning experience. We have a report.”
The interlocutors had visited the protest site at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi on February 19, 2020 and spoken to the protesters, a vast majority of whom are women of different ages and faiths. Earlier, former chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities Wajahat Habibullah, who had also visited the site with the interlocutors, filed an affidavit saying that during his visit he inspected several barricades put up by the police at a great distance from the protest site.
Habibullah said that it was these unnecessary barricades that were causing the traffic related inconvenience. He said, “I noticed that there are numerous number of roads that have no connection with the protest that have been barricaded by the police unnecessarily, abdicating their responsibilities and duties and wrongly laying the blame on the protest.” He had also said, “Shaheen Bagh stands tall as a firm example of peaceful dignified dissent.”
The protest at Shaheen Bagh that began on December 15, is a one-of-a-kind post-independence women-led protest to protect the identities of the minorities and the marginalized. It is still going strong.
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