A contempt petition filed by the Free Speech Collective before India's Supreme Court targets Delhi Police and its affiliated units, alleging non-compliance with a court directive dated 11 October that had granted journalists unrestricted access to demonstrations against election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision process. Named as respondents in the proceedings are three bodies: the Union Home Ministry, Delhi's Police Commissioner, and the city's own government.
Filed on Monday, 12 October, the petition followed a series of documented incidents in which journalists had their movements forcibly restricted, were placed on buses without explanation, found their work obstructed, and received no acknowledgement when they produced valid press credentials. The petition — filed with journalist Geeta Seshu representing the collective — notes that a court order dated October 10 had stated that lawyers, journalists, and other professionals were not to face interference while carrying out their professional duties, yet Delhi Police personnel went on to detain, remove, and otherwise block journalists who were covering events at R.K. during the Sunday demonstration convened by the CJP and Left-affiliated organisations.
Spots along Ashram Marg, Connaught Place, and a range of other Delhi neighbourhoods were among the sites affected. The petition calls on the Supreme Court to open contempt proceedings against the Delhi government, the Home Ministry, and Delhi Police.
In its petition, the Free Speech Collective drew on accounts involving journalists from The News Minute, The Hindu, The Indian Express (Hindi), Peek TV, and PTI, noting that those reporters had been taken into custody while carrying out their work and that officers had intervened to stop them from recording police activity. According to the petition, a PTI photojournalist witnessed officers seizing fellow members of the press by the neck and forcing them into police vehicles, actions that continued even as those journalists held up their credentials and equipment — with the document also recording accounts of physical assault and the removal of additional press workers onto police buses.
On Sunday, 11 October, the Supreme Court convened an out-of-schedule sitting to take up a fresh cluster of petitions, among them one concerning alleged contempt by the authorities overseeing the demonstration in the nation's capital. Contempt proceedings prompted the court to send notices to the force, after Delhi Police and parts of the civilian administration were found to have set aside a 9 October order permitting only proportionate curbs on movement and communications across the city.
Two distinct chains of authority govern Delhi: the Union Home Ministry retains direct command over the police force, while a 2023 amendment to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act shifted oversight of the broader civil administration apparatus to the central government. On 9 October, the bench determined that broad-based prohibitions on Delhi Metro operations fell outside what the law permits, given that a transit network of that nature cannot be shut down through wide-ranging orders of that type.
A petition lodged on October 10 challenged both the non-compliance with that court order and the broad-based detention of demonstrators, bystanders, and members of the press. The filing, submitted on Monday, also sought a court order compelling police to bring detained individuals before a judge, and noted that journalists covering the protests had been subjected to physical force, removal, and detention by officers despite visibly carrying press credentials.
On Sunday, 11 October, the Supreme Court received an undertaking from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that media personnel would retain full access to cover the protest. According to unconfirmed accounts, personnel from Reporter TV, 24 News, and Asianet News — among them Roshni Rajan and Farza T.M. — were taken into custody at or in the vicinity of R.K. Detainees were held at Ashram Marg before being released after a number of hours.
Three journalists from Indian Express (Hindi) — Shashwat, Siya, and Vijay — were taken into custody while covering events at Connaught Place and transported to Chatrasal Stadium, while The News Minute's Nidhi Suresh was held at a police station before being released at around 6:30 pm. On Ashram Marg, members of the press who had been asking police about the detention of a fellow journalist were themselves stopped. Responding to questions from journalist Sreenivasan Jain, a police officer indicated that the moment was not appropriate for any queries.
Video footage captured a Delhi Police officer in uniform intervening to block a journalist from a recognised television outlet who had come to document the demonstration. Delhi Police put forward the position that the journalists had been positioned in proximity to the protest area, and that any detentions were a product of on-the-ground disorder rather than deliberate action.
