Delhi Police conduct during student protests raises due process concerns

The right to protest is a constitutionally protected expression of democratic participation in India, flowing from Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression) and Article 19(1)(b) (right to assemble peaceably and without arms). These rights are not absolute — Articles 19(2) and 19(3) permit the state to impose reasonable restrictions on grounds including public order, sovereignty, and the integrity of India. The constitutional design thus creates a deliberate tension: the state has a legitimate interest in maintaining order, but that interest cannot serve as a pretext to suppress lawful dissent.

The procedural dimension of this tension is anchored in Article 21, which guarantees that no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. The Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978) fundamentally expanded this guarantee by holding that the procedure must be fair, just, and reasonable — not arbitrary or oppressive. This effectively imported a substantive due process standard into Indian constitutional law, making procedural fairness a justiciable right rather than a legislative courtesy.

Police powers to disperse assemblies are governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), particularly Sections 129–131, which authorise executive magistrates and police officers to disperse unlawful assemblies using force. These statutory powers are supplemented by administrative standing orders — including Delhi Police Standing Orders 309 and 152 — and by judicial guidelines that prescribe the manner in which force may be used, creating a layered accountability framework that is frequently tested in practice.