Former civil servant Ashish Joshi has filed a plea before the Delhi High Court seeking judicial scrutiny of the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in the national capital for protest-related duties.
In his PIL, Joshi has sought disclosure of the government orders, security assessments and reasons behind repeated extensions of the deployment.
Joshi has sought directions to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi Police to place on record the requisitions, sanctions and extension orders relating to the deployment, including the decisions dated October 06, October 08, October 22 and October 29.
The plea seeks details of the deployment of 273 CAPF companies, which were subsequently reduced to 270 companies, including their sanctioned strength, personnel mobilised to Delhi, actual reporting strength and personnel assigned to protest-related duties.
It further seeks a force-wise and date-wise account of the deployment, including the number of personnel held in reserve and the criteria adopted for reducing or withdrawing the forces.
Joshi has also sought disclosure of the contemporaneous risk assessments and recommendations forming the basis of the deployment and its subsequent extensions. The authorities have been asked to explain the nature of the apprehended risk, how peaceful mobilisation was distinguished from a credible threat of violence, and what less restrictive alternatives were considered.
The plea also seeks a direction that any continuation of the CAPF deployment beyond November 16, should be permitted only through a written and reasoned order recording the necessity of the deployment, its strength and geographical spread, alternatives considered and the date of the next review.
Further, the plea seeks a declaration that an order deploying CAPFs in aid of civil power does not, by itself, authorise the dispersal of peaceful assemblies, detention of persons merely for participating in protests or the use of force.
It contends that every coercive action must independently comply with the applicable statutory provisions, including Sections 148 to 151 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, as well as the constitutional requirements of necessity, proportionality and accountability.
Joshi has urged the Court to direct the Union Government, in consultation with the other authorities, to frame and notify a written protocol within eight weeks for substantial or repeatedly extended CAPF deployments for protest-related duties.
He has further sought preservation of all deployment and extension orders, requisitions, strength returns, review notes, coordination instructions, expenditure records and incident records relating to the October 2026 deployment, without prejudice to preservation directions already issued by the Supreme Court.
The plea has been filed through Advocates Ambuj Dixit and Amrish Ranjan Pandey.