Supreme Court forms High-Powered Enquiry Committee to investigate violence during student protests

Supreme Court forms High-Powered Enquiry Committee to investigate violence during student protests The committee will `be headed by former top court judge Justice R.

Key points

• The Supreme Court on Thursday (August 20, 2026) ordered the formation of a high-powered enquiry committee (HPEC) to examine problems, including police violence, NEET-UG protests nationwide.
• The order by a Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant remarked the enquiry undertaken by the HPEC should not be a one-time exercise.
• 'Don't waste our time': CJI Kant declines to take cognisance of police violence during CJP's Parliament march.
• The problems to be investigated include the apply of excessive force and violence against protestors by police authorities and other agencies, among others.
• The committee will be headed by Justice (Retd.) R.

Notably, the problems to be investigated include the apply of excessive force and violence against protestors by police authorities and other agencies, among others. Photo Credit: Reuters.

In practice, the Supreme Court on Thursday (August 20, 2026) ordered the formation of a high-powered enquiry committee (HPEC) to examine problems, including police violence, NEET-UG protests nationwide.

For context, the committee will be headed by Justice (Retd.) R. Subhash Reddy, former judge of the Supreme Court of India. Other members include, Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Shalinder Kaur, former Judge of the Delhi High Court, Rishi Kumar Shukla, former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Dr. L.R. Bishnoi, retired Director General of Police, Meghalaya.

For context, the court order listed the problems raised by the petitioners which the HPEC need to enquire into. These include the employ of excessive force and violence against protestors by police authorities and other agencies, including the deployment of pellet guns, electric batons, lathi charges, and tear gas without adequate warning or proportionality, resulting in severe bodily harm and injuries, some of which are alleged to be of a grievous and lasting nature. Why is Jantar Mantar in Delhi facing scrutiny? Explained. Pellet guns, shock batons applied against protesters in Delhi; police deny.

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Meanwhile, the question of ensuring a proportionate and measured police response during protests, public gatherings, and peaceful assemblies, so as to strike an appropriate balance between the maintenance of public order and the constitutional right to peaceful dissent; The desirability of banning the employ of metallic kinetic projectiles or pellets fired from pump-action rifles or projectile-action guns, having regard to the grave and, at times, irreversible bodily harm occasioned by their deployment against protestors; The necessity of ensuring that police and security personnel wear proper uniforms and visible nameplates at the time of effecting arrests or using force during crowd-control operations, so as to secure accountability and enable the identification of individual officers.

Meanwhile, the petitioners had raised the need for an enquiry into the allegations pertaining to the monitoring and surveillance of protestors by police personnel, and the extent to which such measures, if undertaken, were consistent with the protestors' constitutional rights to privacy and free assembly.

For context, the alleged incidents of targeted violence, harassment, molestation and/or any secondary victimisation directed against female protestors, which, given the gravity and sensitivity of the allegations, warrant a focused and expeditious enquiry; The provision of medical and other requisite backing, including award of compensation, to victims of alleged police abuse, including the manner and adequacy of such backing extended thus far.

Regulation of the issuance of blanket prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, so as to prevent their employ as a routine or pre-emptive measure that forecloses the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly rather than as a genuine, proportionate response to a real and imminent threat to public order.

Notably, the establishment of strict constitutional thresholds and safeguards to prevent Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 from being invoked as an instrument to stifle political dissent and peaceful protest, thereby ensuring that the provision remains confined to its intended purpose and is not permitted to operate as a chilling restraint upon constitutionally protected speech and assembly.

Similarly, the court has listed problems raised by respondents, including the families of injured police officers.

These include the alleged employ of force and violence by protestors against police office-holders and other security personnel.

Meanwhile, the damage occasioned to public property on account of the actions of the protestors during the course of the remarked demonstrations, including the destruction of and injury caused to administration installations, vehicles, and other assets belonging to the State and to private citizens alike.

As well as the consequent mental and emotional trauma borne by their kith and kin merits due recognition and consideration, the injuries sustained by the police forces in the course of discharging their duties.

In practice, the court suggested the HPEC to take up, on a priority basis, allegations of targeted violence, harassment, and molestation of female protestors.

Similarly, the HPEC should additionally assess the grievous harm and injury allegedly caused to protestors by police authorities and security personnel.

In practice, the court further clarified that the constitution of the HPEC "shall in no way deter or debar the police authorities or other security forces from taking administrative or disciplinary action against such of their officers as may be found to be in contravention of the rules governing their conduct".

For context, the order by a Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant remarked the enquiry undertaken by the HPEC should not be a one-time exercise.

"Rather, the committee shall undertake a continuous and periodic assessment of the issues enumerated in the order and shall submit its interim findings periodically so as to enable this court to take appropriate measures and issue such directions as may be warranted, " the court remarked.

In short, supreme Court forms High-Powered Enquiry Committee to investigate violence during student protests is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.