Contempt plea in Supreme Court over metro station closures despite court order
A contempt petition has been filed in the Supreme Court alleging that authorities shut Delhi Metro stations and cancelled trains in violation of the court's October 9 order against any complete ban on public transport ahead of the October 10 protest.
The plea, moved by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi, seeks contempt proceedings against Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chairperson D Thara for allegedly disobeying the court's directions.
The matter stems from the Supreme Court's October 9 order in MA Baby versus Union of India, passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, which held that there should be no outright prohibition on the movement of Metro trains.
The court had taken note of communications from the Delhi Police directing the DMRC to close 57 Metro stations and of the cancellation of Mail and Express trains arriving at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations, observing that the notifications appeared to be "overreaching".
Tripathi has alleged that he visited GTB Nagar and Vishwavidyalaya Metro stations around 9.30 pm on October 9 and found the entry gates locked, with exit permitted through manually regulated gates.
The DMRC had announced through its official handle that entry and exit at the affected stations would remain closed from 9 pm on October 9 until 6 pm on October 10, and later reduced the number of stations to be shut from 57 to 45.
As an interim measure, the petition seeks directions to revoke the blanket prohibitory orders affecting Metro and railway operations and to ensure that services operate under a regulated schedule with immediate public notice.
