A day after the Supreme Court said journalists must not be hindered, a journalist alleges in a contempt plea that Delhi Police detained and obstructed them while covering the protests.
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New Delhi: Alleging that they were detained twice, on October 10 and 11, 2026, while reporting on the protests against the Chief Election Commissioner, in violation of the Court’s order of October 11, a journalist with the digital news platform Molitics has moved the Supreme Court with a contempt petition against the Union Home Secretary, the Delhi Police Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi District) and the SHO of Kamla Market Police Station [Shailendra Mani Tripathi v. Govind Mohan and Others].
Filed by Amaan Rastogi, the petition is Contempt Petition (C) Diary No. 63801/2026 in W.P.(C) Diary No. 63560/2026. It is tagged with the main matter, which is listed on October 13 before a Bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana. The allegations below are those of the petitioner. They are untested, the Court has expressed no view on the merits, and no response from the police has been reported.
What the October 11 order says
The petition builds on the Supreme Court’s order of October 11. That order recorded the Solicitor General’s assurance that lawyers, journalists and other professionals would not be impeded, and directed that they shall not be hindered in the discharge of their professional duties in any manner whatsoever. The petition also invokes Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution.
The two detentions alleged
The petition states that on October 10, Rastogi was reporting on protests near Connaught Place with the Molitics press identity card visibly displayed. After questioning police about the detention of civilians, it says, Rastogi was detained, and it alleges that Rastogi was manhandled and put into a DTC bus.
On October 11, after the Supreme Court’s order, Rastogi was detained again, the petition states, at around 3.30 pm near Minto Road while riding a motorcycle towards Connaught Place. It alleges that police recognised Rastogi from the previous day and prevented recording. The phone was taken, the petition alleges, and kept for about three hours without a seizure memo before being returned damaged, while the press identity card was thrown into a sewer.
No detention memo was prepared on either day, the petition states, and Rastogi had complied with the Delhi Police guidelines for journalists of October 5, 2026, which ask journalists to keep identity cards visibly displayed.
What the petitioner wants
Besides initiation of contempt proceedings, the petition seeks a direction to the Delhi Police Commissioner to file a personal affidavit. It asks for the legal authority for the detentions, the names and belt numbers of the personnel involved, the DD and GD entries, the reasons why no detention or seizure memo was prepared, and whether Minto Road fell within any prohibitory order under Section 163 of the BNSS.
Why it matters
Within a day of the October 11 order, which expressly protects journalists in the discharge of their professional duties, the plea tests how far that order reaches. It is the second contempt plea on the detention of journalists to reach the Court in the same week, and the Court’s response will indicate how strictly it intends the assurance recorded from the Solicitor General to be enforced.
Case Title: Shailendra Mani Tripathi v. Govind Mohan and Others [Contempt Petition (C) Diary No. 63801/2026 in W.P.(C) Diary No. 63560/2026]
Bench: Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, Supreme Court of India
Date of Filing: October 12 to 13, 2026 (listed October 13, 2026 with the main matter)
Appearances: Advocate Spriha Pachauri drew the petition, filed through Advocate-on-Record Abiha Zaidi