Shaheen Bagh Mediators Submit Report to SC in Sealed Cover

Wajahat Habibullah, who is not one of the court-appointed interlocutors, has also filed an affidavit in the court.

Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran, mediators appointed by Supreme Court, at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, Wednesday, 19 February.

(Photo: PTI)

Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran submitted a report on their discussions with the anti-CAA-NRC protesters at Shaheen Bagh, to the apex court on Monday, 24 February.

The report, following three days of discussions with the women who have been protesting at Shaheen Bagh for over two months now, has been submitted in a sealed cover.

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who is hearing the matter along with Justice KM Joseph, has said the report will neither be made public nor will it be shared with the parties to the case.

The court has set the next date of hearing in this case, where they have been asked to order the protests at Shaheen Bagh to be ended, for Wednesday, 26 February.

Wajahat Habibullah Not Appointed by Court as Interlocutor

The submission of the report by Hegde and Ramachandran, who are both senior lawyers practicing in the Supreme Court, follows the filing of an affidavit by former information commissioner and Minorities Commission chairman Wajahat Habibullah over the weekend.

Former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah.(Photo: IANS)

When the judges appointed Hegde and Ramachandran as mediators on Monday, 24 February, it was widely reported that Habibullah had also been appointed as an interlocutor to speak to the protesters about the possibility of moving the protests to an alternate site.

However, these reports were not correct. The judges only observed during the hearing that Hegde and Ramachandran could take the assistance of Habibullah, who had filed an intervention application in the case, arguing against the petitions by Amit Sahni and others which claimed the protests were causing an inconvenience because of the blocking of a public road.

The affidavit filed by him says that the protest remains peaceful and the police has blocked five points around Shaheen Bagh. If the blockades were to be removed, according to Habibullah, then the traffic issues in the area will be resolved, adding that the police blockage seemed unnecessary.

School vans and ambulances are allowed to pass through the roads after checking by police, he added. The government should speak to the protesters regarding the CAA, NPR and NRC, Habibullah recommended.