Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday rejected and termed "reckless" media reports that claimed he had refused to list a petition challenging police action against student protesters protesting over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy. He said the reports were "completely false" and "irresponsible", according to a PTI report.
The remarks come following multiple media reports suggesting that the court had refused to hear a petition related to police action against those protesting.
The Chief Justice of India said that, in fact, no writ petition was filed before the court, and what was being referred to was only a representation.
"In the last two days, a completely false statement was made that a matter was filed, and the media is absolutely free from all responsibility, falsely reporting that the Chief Justice refused to list the matter. Till morning 10 AM, not a single page has been filed. It was one representation... sent by that Mishra or someone. How can I treat the representation as a writ petition? And people start recklessly reporting this," the Chief Justice said, as reported by the agency.
The CJI emphasised that the court can only list matters that are filed following the legal procedures in place.
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A lawyer on Wednesday sought urgent hearing on the police action against students during the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest march on July 20.
"I have the videos as well regarding police brutality... If it can be listed tomorrow (Thursday)... students are there," the lawyer had said.
He said the students had allegedly been subjected to police brutality during the protest.
The CJI had declined the request and made it clear that the bench was not inclined to examine video footage at the mentioning stage.
"We are not interested in videos, we don't have time to watch... We don't want to watch videos," the CJI had said.
The protestors were demanding Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over NEET exam leak issue.
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(With PTI inputs)
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