Supreme Court appoints mediators to convince protestors

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday appointed senior advocate Sanjay Hegde and advocate Sadna Ramchandran to talk to protestors at Shaheen Bagh and convince them to move the venue of their agitation or end it.

The duo has been directed to file the mediation report in the Supreme Court by Monday.

"If everybody starts blocking roads even when they have genuine grievances, where will that take us," said Justice SK Kaul, adding that "our concern is limited. This is today one section of people, tomorrow there can be another section on a different situation. Everybody will be on roads."

The bench, comprising Kaul and Justice KM Joseph, observed that democracy worked on expressing views but there were lines and boundaries for it.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that the government has held several meetings with protestors but to no avail.

"I don't want a message to go out that our institution is leaning before them...I don't want the message to be that we've been brought to our knees" said Mehta.

Advocate and activist Amit Sahni had filed plea against Shaheen Bagh protestors, saying that daily life in the area has been disrupted.

For over two months now, hundreds of people have been sitting-in on a stretch of road in south Delhi's Shaheen Bagh to protest against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, as a result of which roads have been blocked leading to frequent traffic jams.