NEET-UG protests: After Supreme Court quashes FIRs, petitioner says police, government yet to explain their conduct

Days after the Supreme Court quashed the FIRs against the NEET-UG protestors , the primary petitioner in the case listed a string of reasons on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), alleging that the conduct of the Delhi police and the political executive was not only “contrary to constitutional guarantees but also manifestly criminal in character”.

In a rejoinder filed in the apex court to a mid-August police affidavit, advocate-petitioner Shailendra Mani Tripathi highlighted several factors surrounding the crackdown on July 20 against protestors, who were overwhelmingly students, including a “pre-emptive and militarised” deployment of paramilitary forces, the alleged deliberate infiltration of “chaotic elements” into the peaceful procession like Swatantra Bhardwaj and others armed with sticks and clubs to engineer unrest and the use of lathis, pellet guns , tear gas, and water cannons to “crush a peaceful demonstration against the government’s flawed education policies”.