Govt. move to de-notify Jantar Mantar follows SC suggestion that protest sites need more space, open air
Delhi Police have de-notified Jantar Mantar as a protest site following Supreme Court suggestions to find a more spacious location with better amenities. The move follows legal challenges regarding protest restrictions in the capital.
Why it matters
This reflects the ongoing tension between the government's management of public order and the constitutional right to peaceful protest in urban spaces.
Exactly three days before the Delhi Police de-notified central Delhi ’s Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site on Monday (October 12, 2026), the Supreme Court and the Union government were on the same page about finding an alternative site to “peacefully and lawfully” express dissent in the national capital.
On October 9, both the court and the government had reasoned that central Delhi was too cramped for protests. It denied protesters basic amenities. Observations and remarks were also exchanged about how inconvenient protests in and around Jantar Mantar were to ordinary commuters in Delhi. The Chief Justice of India remarked that central Delhi did not have any washroom, medical and drinking water facilities.
The four-page order passed on October 9 actually records the Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant urging the Union government to look for a “spacious, open” alternative site.
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