The Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to urgently hear a PIL challenging the suspension of mobile internet services at and around Jantar Mantar, the site of the ongoing student protest. The matter is set for hearing today.
The Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to hear on an urgent basis a public interest litigation challenging the suspension of mobile internet services in and around Jantar Mantar, the site of the ongoing student agitation in the national capital.
The matter was mentioned before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia. Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the government had ordered an internet shutdown around Jantar Mantar and pressed for the plea to be taken up at 2.30 pm the same day, a request the Bench accepted.
The lawyer told the court, asking that the case be heard at 2:30 pm.
The bench agreed to take up the matter. This petition seeks relief related to an internet shutdown at Jantar Mantar.
The CJP has been staging a protest in central Delhi since June 20, calling for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, amid allegations connected to the alleged NEET paper leak.
The Jantar Mantar protest
The agitation began in June 2026, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, a youth-led collective demanding accountability for the alleged leak of the 2026 NEET-UG question paper and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk emerged as a prominent figure in the protests, beginning an indefinite hunger strike at the site on June 28.
The demonstration escalated on July 20, when the collective attempted a march towards Parliament and was stopped by a heavy police deployment. Protesters and several bar bodies allege a lathi charge, tear gas and mass detentions; the Delhi Police have denied using excessive force. International outlets described the protests as the largest demonstrations against the government in several years, while the Delhi Police maintained that their actions were necessary to preserve public order.
Following the police response, the CJP announced that it would not organise further street marches in the capital, though the sit-in at Jantar Mantar and the campaign for Pradhan’s resignation would continue. The police dismantled the protesters’ tents at the designated site, and demonstrators began rebuilding their camps amid rain and rubble.
The metro closures
The internet suspension is one of several restrictions imposed on central Delhi over the past week. Seventeen metro stations in central Delhi remained closed on Friday for the third consecutive day, citing security concerns arising from the continuing protest near Jantar Mantar.
Such closures follow established practice the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation shuts the entry and exit gates of specified stations on the advice of the Delhi Police during protests and marches, the object being to prevent large numbers from converging on a sensitive area by rail. Stations in the Lutyens’ zone, clustered around Parliament, the Secretariat and the courts, are the most frequently affected.
The scale of the closures has begun to affect the functioning of the courts themselves. On Thursday, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the Supreme Court would intervene if the metro station serving the court was not reopened by the afternoon, after the Supreme Court Bar Association drew his attention to the hardship being caused to advocates and registry staff.
The Chief Justice also disclosed that judges had been instructed not to pass adverse orders that day where counsel were unable to appear on account of the disruption.
Wangchuk ended his hunger strike after 26 days, announcing the decision after Union Ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh met him at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram around Thursday midnight and conveyed the government’s assurances that his demands would be met. He stated that the CJP’s peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar would nonetheless continue until Pradhan resigns.
The internet suspension plea now joins a growing docket before the Delhi High Court arising from the same agitation, which already includes a batch of petitions alleging excessive use of force by the police and a separate plea seeking an investigation by the National Investigation Agency into the protests.