The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to urgently hear a petition alleging that the police used excessive force against protesters who were marching to Parliament as part of a demonstration called by the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign on Monday, reported Bar and Bench.“Don’t waste our time and don’t waste your time,” Live Law quoted Chief Justice Surya Kant as saying.The petition was mentioned before a bench of Kant and Justice V Mohana by a lawyer, who sought that the plea be listed for hearing on Thursday.The lawyer told the court that he can present video evidence of the police excesses.However, the bench said that it was “not interested in videos”, Bar and Bench reported. “We don’t have time to watch,” Kant was quoted as saying.The petition was filed after security personnel fired tear gas shells and carried out a lathi-charge to disperse protesters on Monday. While the police had stopped the protest leaders from proceeding, some demonstrators moved closer to Parliament and gathered at other locations in central Delhi.The Cockroach Janta Party also claimed that the police had fired pellet guns at the protesters. The Union government classifies pellet guns as a “non-lethal” weapon for crowd control. Its cartridge contains pellets made of rubber or plastic, which can damage sensitive parts like eyes when fired from a short range.The Delhi Police denied using pellet guns against the protesters. It also claimed that the protesters “resorted to large-scale violence” and vandalised public property.Campaign launched after CJI’s remarksThe Cockroach Janta Party was launched on May 16 in response to reports of remarks by Kant on the previous day comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”. Within a week, the campaign had garnered more than 22 million followers on social media platform Instagram.Kant claimed on May 16 that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. He further claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.On June 6, the campaign held its first protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on account of alleged mismanagement in conducting competitive exams. It followed that with demonstrations in several cities.The campaign started an indefinite sit-in demonstration at Jantar Mantar on June 20. On June 28, activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the protest with a hunger strike.On July 9, the Cockroach Janta Party announced that protesters would march to Parliament on July 20, coinciding with the start of the Monsoon Session, if Pradhan does not resign by then.On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court had also declined to urgently hear a petition alleging excessive use of force by security personnel during the protest march. “Don’t drag court into all this,” the bench had verbally observed.Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.Also read: ‘People’s sympathy is now with the youth’: BJP workers worry about crackdown on protestsFollow updates about the youth protest here.