Supreme Court Quashes All FIRs Over July Protests; CJP Calls Off September 5 March
The Supreme Court has ordered the quashing of FIRs related to the July 20-25 protests, except for cases involving 2,837 individuals flagged by Delhi Police over alleged criminal antecedents. The CJP has also called off its planned September 5 protest march in Delhi after governments honoured their commitments.
The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the quashing of all First Information Reports (FIRs) against individuals who participated in protests between July 20 and July 25 under the Jantar Mantar Protest, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The court specifically quashed complaints that did not involve bodily harm or destruction of property during the protests, exercising its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke called the SC’s move as “absolute justice.”
However, the SC made an exception for 2,837 people whom the Delhi Police said had “grave criminal antecedents” and were prima facie present at the protest site. The police sought permission to register a single FIR against them to ascertain their individual roles, if any, in incidents involving “bodily harm or destruction of public property.”
Advocate Vrinda Grover, who represented the CJP, said that FIRs not included in the list presented before the court would also be quashed. “SC said that if this FIR list may be incomplete, any other FIR relating to the same incidents will also be quashed,” she said.
Students had protested against alleged irregularities in the NEET UG 2026 examination on July 20 as part of the “Chalo Sansad” march, demanding reforms in the education system and the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Following the protests, several criminal cases and FIRs were registered by police across states including Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra.
Saurav Das, co-convenor of the CJP, told the court that the September 5 march had been called off as all commitments made by the governments had been honoured.
“Accordingly, given that all the commitments have been honoured by governments requesting the Court for help, on behalf of the CJP, I made a statement before the three-judge bench that we are calling off the September 5 protest march in Delhi. The union government had requested us to make this statement. We accepted, in good faith,” he wrote on X.
The Union Government on July 25 had assured the CJP that no FIRs would be filed against the protesters and that compensation would be provided to the families of students who died by suicide after the NEET paper was leaked. On September 1, the SC directed that FIRs involving no bodily harm or destruction of property be quashed.
Regarding compensation for the families, the court directed the Centre to formulate a pan-India compensation policy and sought some time for the process. The CJP agreed to give the Centre three months, which was subsequently accepted by the court.
Sahil Behl is an education journalist at Jagran with over a year of experience in journalism. Prior to joining Jagran, he worked as a Sub-Editor in NDTV's Education department, where he was responsible for writing and editing education-related content as well as managing the department's social media presence. At Jagran, he covers a wide range of education topics, including board examinations, school updates, admissions, and job notifications, while leveraging his editorial expertise and strong understanding of digital content strategy.
Sahil holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and has also completed an eight-month certification program in Data Science. Passionate about emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, he closely tracks their growing role in journalism and explores how they are transforming shaping the future of the media industry.
