In a big relief for the student protesters who faced FIRs after the July 20 Cockroach Janata Party protests, the Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed all the FIRs filed against protesters between July 20 and 25, except those with criminal antecedents. The court directed that all the cases filed against students in all states and union territories will stand quashed.
After the Supreme Court's big move, the CJP called off its proposed September 5 march in Delhi.
The court order came after Centre's assurance that the cases filed against protesters regarding the July 20 CJP protest will be withdrawn and no new cases will be filed in the future regarding the same protest.
The Court has however allowed the Delhi Police to pursue one FIR against 2,873 individuals who were present in the Jantar Mantar protests as they had serious criminal antecedents.
CJP spokesperson Saurav Das told the top court that after Centre's positive response and the top court's decision, the group has decided to withdraw its call for the September 5 protest.
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta told the court that the Centre (Delhi Police), and the States of Bihar, Assam, West Bengal and Maharashtra have filed applications seeking to quash the FIRs linked to student protests, and assuring that no future FIRs would be registered in respect of the protest related events from July 20 to July 25.
Mehta said that the applications have been filed to honour the assurance made by the Centre to the CJP leaders on July 25.
During the court argument, the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that issue can be sorted out if both the sides talk to each other with trust. To this, Mehta replied that both sides have approached the matter constructively and positively. "We are not enemies," he added.
Appreciating the Centre's response, Das told the court: "In view of the positive assurances of the Government of India and the judicial sanctity bestowed upon them today, and in view of the order being passed by this Court, the CJP deems it appropriate to withdraw the call for the march on September 5 and looks forward to compliance with today's order. I also thank the Court for this decision and the learned counsel on both sides."
The Solicitor General also said that the Centre was committed to honour the assurance to give compensation to the families of students who died by suicide following the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2026 exam, but sought three months to work out the modalities.
The court directed the Centre to finish compensation modalities within three months.
The CJP had called for a protest on September 5 accusing the Centre of not fulfilling its commitments on withdrawing cases against students and compensation to the families of the NEET aspirants who died by suicide after the paper leak.