New Delhi: “I don’t think any justice will be done to, but we don’t have the luxury of not fighting,” said Mohammad Mustafa, a victim of the police violence inside the campus of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, a centrally funded university in New Delhi, on 15 December 2019.

More than five years on, nine petitions to prosecute the Delhi police are pending before the Delhi High Court, and no police personnel have been held responsible for the violence that left at least three students badly injured and blinded one in his left eye. 

A video captured police personnel entering the university library and beating unarmed students with their batons as a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, a controversial law that made religion the basis of granting Indian citizenship, turned violent. 

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing some of the petitioners, told the court that 91 students were injured in the incident. A Newslaundry report published on the day of the violence said, “nearly 400 students have reportedly been injured”. The Indian Express reported that the university’s vice-chancellor, Najma Akhtar, said nearly 200 students had been injured. 

Since 18 December 2019, when the first petition was listed before the Delhi High Court, the matter has had 45 hearings. The last hearing was on 12 November 2024. The next one is scheduled for 27 January 2025.

Outside and near the campus, protesters—mostly students and residents of the Jamia locality—had reportedly clashed with police. Violence broke out after protesters stopped moving towards Parliament.  At least six buses and over 50 vehicles were set ablaze in Mathura Road, New Friends Colony, Jamia Nagar and Sarai Julena. 

The police said they entered the university after stone pelting from inside the campus.

Figures of how many tear gas shells were used that day, including inside the campus, vary. 

In March 2020, the police told the High Court they entered the campus to “rescue innocent students trapped inside”. 

The Jamia administration had said that locals, rather than students, indulged in stone-pelting and arson.

Chinmoy Biswal, the then Delhi commissioner of police (southeast), said no shots were fired, more than 200 tear gas shells were used outside and near the campus, and six policemen were injured.

M S Randhawa, then public relations officer of Delhi Police, claimed, during a press conference on 16 December 2019, that nearly 30 police personnel had been injured, including three who had suffered fractures and one who was “in the ICU”. In February 2020, then minister of state for home, G Kishan Reddy, in Feb 2020 told the Lok Sabha that 62 police personnel and 127 persons, including 36 students, were injured. A police affidavit filed in the High Court in June 2020 said 31 police officers had been injured.

On 19 December 2019, Indira Jaising, the petitioner for Vaibhav Mishra, told the Delhi High Court that over 450 tear gas shells were fired on protestors. 

On that day, the court heard six petitions that asked for the constitution of a fact-finding committee, a direction not to take coercive action against the students regarding FIRs registered against them until the Committee gives its findings, a direction to provide medical assistance to all injured students along with compensation, and a direction to the Delhi Police not to enter university premises without permission from the authorities.

The Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, D N Patel, and Justice C Hari Shankar denied these pleas, asked the Centre and Delhi Police to file affidavits, and scheduled the matter for 4 February 2020.

In contrast to public criticism and submissions to the Court arguing that police do not have the authority to enter university campuses without permission, no such rule or law exists.

Delhi Police Standing Order number 72, directions issued by the commissioner of the Delhi police, said that the police must act “with utmost restraint" when dealing with disturbances of public peace. In August 2020, the Delhi Police told the court that it only used “proportionate force.” 

‘Terrible & Scary’

Mohammad Mustafa, 30, who now works in a private firm, was a second-year student pursuing an MA in social exposure and inclusive policy at the time.  

On the day of the incident, Mustafa was inside the Ibn Sina block of the central library preparing for a fellowship interview.

What unfolded inside the library was “terrible and scary”, said Mustafa. “I was beaten inside the study room in the Ibn Sina block of Jamia central library and on the stairs while coming down and outside the library.” 

“Both of my hands were fractured. Cops called us ‘anti-national’ and hurled religious slurs while dragging us to a PCR van in which we were ferried to New Friends Colony police station,” he said. 

It was only after three in the morning that the police gave in to the pressure from students and teachers who had gathered outside the New Friends Colony police station and took him to the AIIMS trauma centre for treatment, said Mustafa. 

“My medico-legal case (MLC) mentioned ‘assaulted by unknown, brought by police’. This was in complete contrast to what I had told them (the doctors), which was assaulted by cops,” he said. 

Mustafa said he had a plaster cast on both hands for over 90 days, and no one from the university administration, including the vice-chancellor, the proctor or the registrar, visited him. 

His family, based out of West Champaran in Bihar, thought that he was dead when they could not reach him over the mobile and heard the rumours that the police fired shots. 

“It was a traumatic experience for my family. I lost my father when I was in 12th class. My mother, who stays alone and suffers from paralysis, asked me to return home at the earliest,” he said. 

On 18 February 2020, Mustafa filed a plea in the Delhi High Court seeking Rs 1 crore in compensation from the Delhi police. His is one of nine petitions pending before the High Court. 

“You should not have the guts and the right to violate anyone’s dignity with impunity,” he said.

Lost All Hope In The Judiciary 

Shayaan Mujeeb, a 26-year-old from Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district and a third-year BBA student at the time, said he was not part of any protests and was studying for his semester exams in the library when the police dragged him out of the library and beat him. 

With both legs fractured, Mujeeb was bedridden for almost five months. 

“I fell on the ground outside the library. A group of 5-7 police personnel started raining lathis on my legs until they were rendered fractured. A university guard came to my rescue and hid me in the nearby bushes,” said Mujeeb, speaking from Australia, where he is pursuing an MA in Data Analytics. 

Mujeeb was initially taken to the Holy Family Hospital and later to Jaypee Hospital in Noida for treatment. His right leg was severely injured and had to be operated on. The other leg had a plaster cast for three or four months.

Mujeeb, who filed a plea on 17 February 2020  in the Delhi High Court seeking Rs 2 crore compensation, said he had high hopes for two years but has lost all now as he believes the court and the Jamia administration are “scared” of the government.

His is one of the nine petitions pending before the high court.

The Wait for Justice Can’t Go On

While Mustafa and Mujeeb recovered from their injuries, Md Minhajuddin was blinded in his left eye, with every day becoming a struggle for the 30-year-old PhD candidate at Jamia Millia Islamia. 

“I had been studying inside the central library since the afternoon. In the evening, Delhi police personnel entered the building,” said Minhajuddin,  a second-year LLM student in 2019.  “They began blindly raining blows with lathis. Without even being questioned or told anything, students were dragged and thrashed mercilessly.” 

“More than anybody, I blame the Jamia administration for my sufferings. It has never been cooperative since day one,” he said, adding that the university administration appeared reluctant to support the students and did not help them legally or financially. 

Minhajuddin was discharged from AIIMS after two days following an operation, but the lathi charge damaged his left eye, costing him his eyesight, and left his right eye vulnerable to infection. 

Minhajuddin, whose family in Bihar’s Samastipur asked him to return home, said he is waiting for the day the verdict will be delivered. His is one of the nine petitions pending before the high court.

“The delay is highly disappointing. This leads to the erosion of trust in the judiciary, but I’m hopeful justice will be done. However, the wait for justice cannot go on,” he said.

Jamia University’s Reluctance In Pursuing The Case 

On 22 January 2020, Jamia filed a plea in the Saket district court seeking an FIR against the Delhi police under section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

A year later, Delhi’s Saket Court dismissed the plea, citing that the police are protected from prosecution under section 197 of the CrPC for acts done in discharging official duty.

When we asked why the Jamia administration didn’t challenge the Saket court verdict in the higher courts, Quamrul Hassan, the chief media coordinator, said he was not informed about this matter.

On 17 December 2020, eleven months after they filed in February 2020, the court directed that the three students' pleas be taken to the concerned high courts. 

The petitioners, represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves and the New Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network,  moved the Delhi High Court.

The petitioners in the case were seeking directions for setting up a special investigative team, a commission of inquiry, or a fact-finding committee, guidelines on the use of force and peaceful protests in universities, medical treatment, compensation and interim protection from arrest for the students, and registration of FIRs against the erring police officers.

In October 2022, the Supreme Court told the Delhi High Court to “hear out early” the petitions, noting that “these matters have been pending before the high court for some time now.” 

Strong Observations, No Verdict 

Petitioners include the three injured students, the Imam of the Jama Masjid, and residents of Okhla in south Delhi.

The case, which is currently being heard by Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur, has seen 15 judicial bench changes and 20 judges from 18 December 2019 to 12 November 2024.

Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur are currently hearing the case. 

In February 2020, Gonsalves told the court that 93 students and teachers had filed complaints about the police attack on them. Still, no FIR has been filed against the Delhi police personnel.

Six months later, on 4 August  2020, Gonsalves said that petitioners could not trust the Delhi Police to conduct a fair probe because the “chargesheet states that not a single police officer carried out any illegal activity during the violence” and asked for an independent inquiry. 

Gonsalves was referring to the Delhi police chargesheet for the case where they invoked sections like attempt to murder, rioting with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly and obstructing a public servant in connection with the Jamia violence on 15 December 2019. 

On 19 September 2020, the then additional solicitor general of India, Aman Lekhi, opposed the demand to transfer the investigation from the Delhi police and argued that such an exercise of jurisdiction is an exception. Lekhi also argued that the cops were constrained to enter the varsity and that there is no place in India beyond the police's jurisdiction. 

In March 2023, the Delhi High Court bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh said, “Excessive use of force cannot be justified at all. They (police officials) are accountable. These authorities are accountable for the excessive use of force. That is why you (petitioners) are here.”

Advocate Mehmood Pracha, who has argued in the Delhi High Court on behalf of one of the petitioners, Bahadur Abbas, said, “We want action against cops who entered Jamia. This delay in the verdict is making us undergo a similar attack.”

NHRC: Protest ‘Not Peaceful’, But Call For Accountability 

In response to complaints of allegations of violation of human rights, illegal detention of students by the police and denial of legal and medical access to injured students in the police action, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) published a report on 

18 May 2020. 

The NHRC found that students and residents called for protest even though they were denied permission by the police, and the protesters became violent, damaged private property and burnt down buses and other vehicles. 

The NHRC report from 18 May 2020 said that protesters reached Jamia Millia University, blocked the traffic, entered the campus, and “continued pelting stones on the police. “Seeing no other alternative, the report said, the police entered the campus to “contain the violent/unruly mob and to remove them from the campus.”

The NHRC said that protestors “entered inside the libraries and blocked their way to prevent the police”.

“As to remove them, police broke open the doors of libraries. However, some of the police personnel, especially RAF personnel, hit students/protestors despite their pleadings. The beating inside the library was avoidable,” the report said.

The NHRC  said that some remains of tear gas shells were also found in the library, which was  “an irresponsible action of the police and could have been avoided”.

The protests on 15 December were “not peaceful”, the NHRC concluded. 

However, the human rights body said that the government of India, the commissioner of police, Delhi and the director general of the central reserve police force (CRPF) should identify members of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Delhi police, seen in CCTV footage, who were “damaging CCTV Cameras, unnecessarily caning inside the reading rooms of libraries of Jamia Millia Islamia and also using tear gas shells inside the close compound”.

“A suitable action may also be taken against them as per rules and provisions that exist in the respective organizations,” the report said.

NHRC Chairperson Criticised 

Gonsalves told the court that the NHRC report into the Jamia violence was "very poor” and criticised the “casual treatment of the whole thing, given the evidence that existed." He termed the report an “abject failure” and claimed that it was then headed by a judge who was close to the Modi government. 

Justice H L Dattu, a former chief justice of India, chaired the commission from February 2016 to December 2020. 

In 2015, the Opposition criticised Justice Dattu for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi while in office as the CJI. He described the PM as “a good leader, a good human being and a man with foresight.” 

In August 2020, the Delhi High Court bench of then Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan told the Delhi Police that the NHRC report into the violence did not give anyone a clean chit and pointed out that the report indicated the incident was not handled professionally. 

On 22 January 2024, a division bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait asked the Delhi police, “Were you able to identify them (the police personnel)? Was any disciplinary action taken?”

On the last hearing on 12 November, the court asked for the "remaining petitioners" to submit "written submissions" and listed the matter for 27 January 2025. 

The Delhi Police officials—public relations officer Sanjay Tyagi and deputy commissioner of police for south-east Delhi Ravi Kumar—didn’t reply to our query about whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against the police personnel related to this incident.

Petitioner’s lawyer: 'The Perpetrators Were Govt Naxals'

Senior advocate Gonsalves called it “shameful” that the courts had not decided on the matter even after five years. 

“Students were attacked brutally. There was terrible violence against students on campus, but neither the Apex Court nor the High Court had the time to deal with the case because it’s directly linked to the Centre and the Delhi police,” he said. 

Gonsalves further alleged that the orders to barge inside the campus and lathi-charge students “came from the government's highest levels, particularly the ministry of home affairs (MHA).” 

“The lesson for young people is that the judiciary becomes lifeless when criminals are in government or police force. Cops are immune from the law. Ministers are so powerful even for our courts to control,” he said. “MHA talks about urban naxals. I would rather call them government Naxals or official Naxals. Rule of lathi has prevailed.” 

Advocate Sneha Mukherjee, who works with Gonzalves, said that Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Prateek Jalan, directed the release of these matters from the ‘part heard’ list in March 2021. 

This meant that after almost 20 days of arguments spread over 15 months, both sides would have to start their arguments again from scratch.

Judges Who Presided Over Jamia Case Under Radar  

Delhi HC Chief Justice D N Patel, who presided over the Jamia case and retired in March 2022, was appointed the chairperson of the telecom disputes settlement and appellate tribunal by the central government before he demitted office, raising the issue of propriety. 

In his farewell speech, he said some judges are pro-government and that nothing is wrong with that. 

During his tenure, lawyers shouted “shame, shame” inside the courtroom when a two-judge bench he led denied interim protection from coercive police action to students in the Jamia case on 19 December 2019. 

Another judge, Justice Talwant Singh, who heard the petitions from March 2020 to March 2023, retired from the Delhi High Court in June 2023. The ministry of corporate affairs has reportedly appointed him chairperson of the Appellate Authority of the Professional Institutes, which includes professional bodies that regulate and oversee specific domains within the accounting and corporate governance sectors. 

Justice Siddharth Mridul, who heard the case from 15 November 2022 to 13 March 2023, went on to serve as the Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court. Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, who heard the case from November 2023 to May 2024, was later appointed Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

(Sumit Singh and Syed Abubakr are freelance journalists based in Delhi.)

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