‘No permission needed to hoist the national flag’: Neha Bora challenges police bond

PABITRA BANERJEE : All India Students’ Association (AISA) President Neha Bora on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court seeking to quash a peace bond notice issued to her by the Delhi Police. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Bora, contended before Justice Subramonium Prasad, “Question is does this (notice) have substance? We don’t need permission to hoist the national flag. They need a class on law.”The controversy stems from a notice issued on October 17 by a Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) under Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The order directed Bora to appear and execute a personal bond of ₹10,000 with one surety to maintain peace during an inquiry. Senior advocate Sankaranarayanan told the court that Bora was detained barely 10 to 15 minutes after reaching Mandi House on the evening of October 16. He argued that she had not committed any offence, including a breach of peace, on that date.The directive followed her brief detention while heading to participate in the Cockroach Janta Party’s ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march near Mandi House, organized as part of protests against alleged irregularities in the Election Commission’s electoral roll revision. Bora’s counsel submitted that the notice lacked independent application of mind by the magistrate and that compelling a peaceful student activist to execute a peace bond arbitrarily infringes upon fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution.Contesting the petition, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, representing the Delhi Police, raised preliminary objections regarding the maintainability of the plea. The ASG maintained that the SEM notice was a preventive measure issued to avoid potential public disorder, pointing out that it allowed representation through counsel. Following extensive arguments from both sides, the Delhi High Court reserved its verdict on the petition.