{"id":392406,"date":"2026-08-05T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=392406"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:39:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:09:05","slug":"sc-clarifies-criminal-antecedents-in-neet-protest-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/08\/05\/sc-clarifies-criminal-antecedents-in-neet-protest-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court clarifies \u201ccriminal antecedents\u201d in NEET 2026 protest violence case means \u201cgrave and heinous offences\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Disclaimer:<\/span> This has been reported after the availability of the order of the Court and not on media reports so as to give an accurate report to our readers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supreme Court:<\/span> While considering petitions under Article 32<\/a> of the Constitution<\/a> concerning the violence occurred during the NEET Examination 2026 protests and the subsequent clarification sought in respect of its interim order dated 28 July 2026 in Shailendra Mani Tripathi<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span>, 2026 SCC OnLine SC 1409<\/a>, a three-Judge Bench of Surya Kant, CJ, Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, JJ.<\/span>, clarified that the expression “criminal antecedents” used in clauses (iv<\/span>) and (v<\/span>) of Para 8 of the earlier order shall mean “grave and heinous offences”. The Court further clarified that NCT of Delhi or any other State shall be at liberty to take an appropriate decision regarding the closure or withdrawal of the FIRs lodged in various cases, in accordance with law. The matter was directed to be listed on 18 August 2026, with the respondent-States directed to file their respective counter affidavits before the next date of hearing.<\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

The petitions sought the intervention of the Court regarding numerous incidents of violence during the recent protests by demonstrators, predominantly students, at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, and other places in Delhi, which subsequently spread to Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala. The petitioners alleged violations of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14<\/a>, 19<\/a>, 21<\/a> and 22<\/a> of the Constitution<\/a>, contending that the protesting students, who were demonstrating over the alleged leakage of the NEET Examination, 2026 question papers, were subjected to indiscriminate and excessive use of force by the police, including lathi charge, deployment of pellet guns, rubber bullets, electronic batons, tear gas, and lathis embedded with nails, resulting in serious injuries to several protestors and even a member of the media. On the other hand, it was submitted on behalf of the injured police personnel and the Union that those protestors and anti-social elements had indulged in stone pelting and other acts of violence, causing serious injuries to more than 280 police personnel.<\/p>\n

Prima facie, the Court had found that the allegations disclosed a compelling case for an independent and impartial investigation, which would adequately address the allegations made by the petitioners as well as those raised on behalf of the injured police personnel and the Union. However, before issuing any direction for such an investigation, the Court considered it appropriate, in the interest of justice, to afford an opportunity to the NCT of Delhi, the Union of India and the concerned States to place their respective versions on record by way of affidavits along with relevant material.<\/p>\n

As an interim measure, the Court directed that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    All CCTV footage, drone footage, body-worn camera recordings, videography, wireless communication records and Private Complaint Register (PCR) lodge collections related to the students’ protests be preserved.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The respondent(s) and police authorities were directed to ensure that the personal information and digital data of the protestors, collected during the students’ protests, are preserved and are not disclosed to the public domain for the time being.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    The respondent(s) were directed not to publish any public data\/details of the protestors, especially students.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    The NCT of Delhi and other States were permitted to proceed with the investigation of the FIRs registered; however, no coercive measures shall be taken against the protesting students. Such protection, nonetheless, shall not be extended to the persons with criminal antecedents.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    All States were instructed to release children under the age of 18, who had been reported to be arrested or detained in connection with the ongoing protests and who did not possess any criminal antecedents. If necessary, such children were directed to be released upon the execution of a simple bond by themselves or their family members, especially where such a requirement was insisted upon for surety.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The matters were listed for further consideration on 3 August 2026.<\/p>\n

    Read Previous Order:<\/span><\/span> SC Orders Release of Detained Minors in NEET Paper Leak Protests| SCC Times<\/a><\/p>\n

    Analysis<\/p>\n

    In the present hearing the Court noted the submission of the counsel for the petitioner(s) that clauses (iv<\/span>) and (v<\/span>) of Para 8 of the order dated 28 July 2026 required clarification, as they had, to some extent, been misconstrued.<\/p>\n

    Deeming it appropriate to clarify the earlier directions, the Court observed that, insofar as clause (iv<\/span>) of Para 8 was concerned, NCT of Delhi or any other State would be at liberty to take an appropriate decision regarding the closure or withdrawal of the FIRs lodged in various cases, in accordance with law. The Court further clarified that, for the purposes of clauses (iv<\/span>) and (v<\/span>) of Para 8, the expression “criminal antecedents” shall mean “grave and heinous offences”.<\/p>\n

    The matters were directed to be listed on 18 August 2026.<\/p>\n

    Also Read:<\/span> Lok Sabha Passes Public Examinations Amendment Bill, 2026 | SCC Times<\/a><\/p>\n

    [Shailendra Mani Tripathi<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span>, Writ Petition(s)(Criminal) No(s).280 of 2026, decided on 3-8-2026<\/span>]<\/p>\n\n

    Advocates who appeared in this case:<\/p>\n

    For the Petitioner:<\/span> N. Hariharan, Gopal Sankarnarayanan, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Shoeb Alam, Shyam Divan, Ritin Rai, Sridhar Potaraju, Shadan Farasat, Sr. Advocates, Ashima Mandla, Shiv Sagar Tiwari, Ujjwal Singh, Trisha Chandran, Chand Qureshi, Venkata R., Anilendra Pandey, Aljo K. Joseph, Yashwant Singh, Soutik Banerjee, AOR, Mandakini Singh, Nipun Saxena, Arjan Singh Mandla, Dev Nagar, Aadya Pandey, Deepali Dabas, B.D. Rao Kundan, Siddharth S. Yadav, Vanshika Tewari, Siddharth Venugopal, Shaurya Dasgupta, Smruthi Gangadhar, Narendra Mishra, Aakanksha Tiwari, Preeti Chauhan, Priyanka Dwivedi, Keshav Choudhary, Neeraj Shrivastava, Tilak Raj Passi, Fauzia Shakil, Amit Bhandari, Nazmeen Ahmed, Khalid Ali, Aanand Kumar Vashistha, Daksh Kadian, Udayaditya Banerjee, Tahira Kathpalia, Samiksha Godiyal, Harsh Srivastava, Mallika Aggarwal, Tenzing Namgyal, Sreekar Aechuri, Smruthi Gangadharaiah, Arpith Jacob Varaprasad, Shaishir Divatia, Aadya Khanna, Abhishek Singh, Mridul Godha, Ankita Gupta, Rithwik Narayanan, Sarah Ayreen Mir, Gladson Rodrigues, Gaurav Kumar, Vishal Sinha, Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Shailendra Mani Tripathi, Sanjiv Misra, Siddharth Venugopal, Naman Shresta, Pooja Shilpkar, Shourya Dasgupta, Smruthi Gangadharaiah, Priyendu Raghav Mishra, Rakesh Kumar, Vishal Kumar, Mujahid Ahmad, Mohit Yadav, Mohd Shahzad Ansari, Nagendra Singh Yadav, Dharmendra Singh Yadav, Goverdhan Prasad Tiwari, Amarish Chandra Tiwari, Davinder Pal Kaur, Chamundeswari P., Onkar Singh, Avni Singh, Anamika Mishra, Pragati Katiyar, Shreya Singh, Abhishek Singh, Raj Narayan Pal, Ragini Sachdeva, R.K. Sachdeva, Aarati Sah, Animesh Shukla, Harshit Anand, Rishav Ranjan, Vrinda Grover, Devika Tulsiani, Advocates<\/p>\n

    For the Respondent:<\/span> Azmat Hayat Amanullah, Manish Kumar, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Anilendra Pandey, Neha Rathi, Rahul Gupta, Sadashiv, Anindita Mitra, Srishti Mishra, Nishant Awana, Karan Sharma, A.K. Sharma, Dr N. Visakamurthy, AOR, Nitya Sharma, Ekta Kundu, Rebecca Mishra, Vanshita Gupta, Divyansh Mishra, Kumar Saurav, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Shrirang B. Varma, Aditya Krishna,Sushmita Pandey, Arunima Das, Ashwin Arun Hirulkar, Kunika Bansal, Aarati Sah, Animesh Shukla, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Prashant Bhushan, Omar Hoda, Amit Bhandari, Kajal Giri, Somya Kumari, Prateek Yadav, Cheryl D’Souza, Huzaifa, Rishav Ranjan, Aman Prasad, Pratul, Parimal Wagh, Shiyas Kr., Manik Gupta, Angad Gautam, Vandana, Mumtaz Jawed Shaikh, Neha Gupta, Devendra Kumar Gupta, Sakshi Singh, Mohd Arafat Ahmad, Mohd Shafat Ahmad, Ashish Kumar Pandey, Manoj Pandey, Amit Rawal, Sr. Adv. Riahika, Kunal Mittal, Prashant Singh, Sr. Adv. (AG), D.S. Parmar, AAG Harmeet Singh Ruprah, Karan Singh, Ruchi Kohli, Sr. Adv., Suraj Kundu, Amogh Pandey, Vivek Jain, Chetan, Suraj Gupta, Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, Suryaprakash V. Raju, A.S.G., Annam Venkatesh, Bhuvan Kapoor, Aman Mehta, Sarica Raju, Aastha Singh, Advocates<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Supreme Court clarified that “criminal antecedents” in its NEET 2026 protest order refers only to “grave and heinous offences” and held that NCT of Delhi and other States are at liberty to decide closure or withdrawal of FIRs in accordance with law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67541,"featured_media":392411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[7292,7282,13681,47697,111537,95888,110520,111538,39689,3268,111539,23854,60880,108068,111059,4831,111055,70720,111056,22744,42607,105064,3117,23864,101956,5363],"class_list":["post-392406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-supremecourt","tag-article-14","tag-article-19","tag-article-21","tag-article-22","tag-article-32-petition","tag-chief-justice-surya-kant","tag-cjp-protest","tag-crimial-antecedents","tag-delhi-police","tag-Fundamental_Rights","tag-grave-and-heinous-offences","tag-jantar-mantar","tag-justice-joymalya-bagchi","tag-justice-v-mohana","tag-minor-protestors","tag-neet","tag-neet-2026","tag-neet-paper-leak","tag-neet-paper-leak-protest","tag-paper-leak","tag-police-excesses","tag-police-violence","tag-Preventive_Detention","tag-protest","tag-student-protest","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nSC 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