BREAKING: Centre Moves Supreme Court To Quash FIRs Against NEET Paper Leak Protestors

The Centre has moved an application before the Supreme Court of India to quash the FIRs registered against student protesters involved in the NEET Paper leak protests invoking its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.

As the CJI Surya Kant led bench was rising for the day, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated, "I need to mention something..it is not right to mention when the bench is rising..but we have moved an application regarding the protests..for quashing of FIRs..we are invoking Article 142..".

The CJI agreed with the SG's submission and said, "If they are reconciling good, we have no difficulty".

Notably, a protest march announced by the Cockroach Janata Party in Delhi on September 5 alleging that the Centre has not honored its commitment to withdraw the cases against protesters who participated in the July protests across the country over NEET paper leak.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had directed that the State government are at liberty to withdraw FIRs registered against the protestors involved in the recent protests that happened in various parts of the country over the NEET paper leak. As a CJI Surya Kant led bench clarified that those FIRs registered against persons who are already accused of grave and heinous offences may not be withdrawn, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that 2700 such FIRs shall not be withdrawn.

SG Mehta had then told the bench, "There were some misapprehensions in what to do with the FIRs...we have instructions that the government is serious on the commitment..". SG further had informed court that persons with antecedents of rape cases, murder cases, POCSO cases etc would not be spared. Hearing this the bench clarified, "The term criminal antecedents in our previous order is clarified to mean grave and hennas offences."

Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed that no coercive action would taken against the protestors involved in the recent protests. A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana had also ordered immediate release of minors detained by police across different States except those with criminal background.

On August 20, the Supreme Court has also constituted a High-Powered Enquiry Committee(HPEC) headed by Justice (Retd.) R. Subhash Reddy, Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India for an independent and impartial investigation into the alleged acts of violence during the NEET Paper Leak protests.

The top court has ordered that the enquiry undertaken by the HPEC shall not be a one-time exercise rather, the Committee shall undertake a continuous and periodic assessment of the issues enumerated hereinabove, and shall submit its interim findings periodically so as to enable this Court to take appropriate measures and issue such directions as may be warranted.

Mentioning Date: August 31, 2026

Bench: CJI Kant, Justice Bagchi and Justice Mohana