Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant
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The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, struck a parental tone, stating that reasoning with students, youth, and organisers involved in the NEET-UG paper leak protests would be a better option than taking an aggressive approach with them.“A better way is to counsel them and pacify them. The most powerful resource is reasoning: to listen to them. The government knows how to deal with it,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said.The court was hearing a petition filed by a retired Air Force officer, Manish Kumar Solanki, who said the government was on the “backfoot” in bringing the “so-called organisers” of the Cockroach Janta Party-linked (CJP) demonstration against the paper leak and the ensuing police crackdown and violence that rocked the national capital on July 20.The counsel for Solanki said 15 days have passed since the July 20 incident, but there has been no move to make the organisers accountable. He said the CJP was not even a registered organisation.“The government is bending backwards to accommodate them. Violence, meanwhile, is continuing. A youth died in Rajasthan. In society, everybody is important, including the farmers who had agitated and the protestors of Shaheen Bagh… If the government is on the backfoot, society and the institutions of law cannot be seen to be on the backfoot,” advocate Rizwan Ahmed, appearing for the petitioner, submitted.He asked why the nation and the society should tolerate a “dangerous precedent”.“Stone-pelters cannot be allowed to go scot-free just because the government is on the back foot. Tomorrow, Generation Alpha, Beta, Gamma may come… Farmers will take tractors to the Parliament, the temple of democracy,” Ahmed argued.He said the NEET-UG protest organisers were continuing to fan the fires, “moving from channel to channel that gives them time on a silver platter”. The petitioner suggested that the “young boys and girls” should be asked to do seven days of community service.But the Chief Justice advised conciliation, counselling and peace.“Youngsters are required to be pacified, even if some misguided elements are involved in stone-pelting. They need a lot of advice and counselling. Any aggression will only unnecessarily aggravate the situation and lead to further violations. That needs to be avoided,” Chief Justice Kant said.The Chief Justice stated that restraint on the part of law enforcement agencies is preferable to the use of force when dealing with the younger generation. A peaceful agitation could turn violent; it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that the situation does not spiral out of control.“In a democratic movement, what starts with a peaceful objective can sometimes lead to incidents that require forces to exercise considerable restraint to ensure that the situation does not escalate,” Chief Justice Kant noted.The court said continuing incidents of violence involving youths must be dealt with carefully to avoid them snowballing into another violent confrontation.“Stray incidents, wherever they are happening, authorities need to step carefully to avoid any further violence… A better way is to counsel and pacify them,” the Chief Justice reiterated the message to soothe rather than agitate Gen Z.The court tagged the petition with a bunch of pleas dealing with the NEET-UG protests to be heard along with them on August 18.Published on August 5, 2026
