Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said the central government must approach the Supreme Court to get all FIRs registered during the students’ protests over the NEET-UG exam paper leak quashed.
His statement comes days after the Supreme Court clarified that its earlier order would not prevent respective state governments from taking steps to close or withdraw proceedings arising out of FIRs registered against student protesters in accordance with law.
In the August 3 order, the apex court also made it clear that the expression “criminal antecedents” in its previous order on releasing student protesters referred only to those involved in grave and heinous offences.
In a post on X, Thackeray said the Maharashtra government’s notification of withdrawing cases after filing a chargesheet is purely a waste of time, energy and resources.
“More so, if other states have done it, (then) why not Maharashtra? In fact, the Union government must approach the Supreme Court under Article 142 and get all the FIRs quashed,” he said.
“Regardless of this hide-and-seek game by the state government, we stand by our commitment to all those who have emailed us and will call a meeting of them all to brief them on the procedure. Advocate Sagar Devre is on it,” he said.
Thackeray said it would be interesting to see whether the Maharashtra government honours the Centre’s commitment of withdrawing the FIRs.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said his party was in touch with the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on this.
The party was also in touch with (CJP legal affairs head) Ratna Singh and (CJP co-convener) Saurav Das to ensure this coordination is in sync with the commitments given by the MHA to the CJP, he added.
The CJP-led youth protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over the NEET question paper leak, which lasted for 36 days, culminated in the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
When the protesters tried to march to Parliament on July 20, the Delhi police blocked their way and used force to disperse them, triggering clashes between the two sides.
The CJP withdrew its protest on July 25 following the resignation of Pradhan and talks with the government, which accepted the agitators’ demands.
