The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora’s petition challenging a police notice that required her to execute a peace bond before a special executive magistrate, while directing the magistrate to provide her with all material used in the proceedings.
“I am rejecting the writ petition at this juncture,” Justice Subramonium Prasad said while pronouncing the judgment. The detailed copy of the order was awaited, according to Millennium Post.
The police notice was issued on October 17 under Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). It directed Bora to appear before the special executive magistrate on October 19 and explain why she should not be required to execute a personal bond of Rs 10,000, along with one surety, “for keeping peace for a period of enquiry”.
Section 126 of the BNSS allows a special executive magistrate to seek such a bond when there is credible information that a person is likely to breach the peace, disturb public tranquillity or commit a wrongful act that could result in a disturbance. The provision places the proceedings within the preventive law-and-order framework administered through executive magistrates.
Bora was taken into preventive detention on October 16 while she was travelling to join the Cockroach Janta Party’s ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march in Delhi’s Connaught Place. She was released on October 17, the same day the notice was issued.
The proceedings before the magistrate relate to allegations of sloganeering at Mandi House on October 16, repeated protests near Jantar Mantar despite prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS, and allegedly instigating people to participate in the October 16 demonstration.
In her petition, filed through lawyer Abhik Chimni, Bora argued that the notice was vague and factually incorrect. She also contended that it did not provide material supporting the claimed likelihood of a breach of peace. During the hearing on Thursday, her senior counsel argued that citizens did not require permission to hoist the national flag and that seeking regime change was not wrong in a democracy.
The High Court’s directions mean that the proceedings before the special executive magistrate must include disclosure of the material relied upon against Bora. The court’s decision on the petition comes as the preventive use of executive-magistrate powers remains central to how Delhi authorities regulate demonstrations, public gatherings and alleged risks to public order. Further procedural details will be available once the detailed judgment is released.
