Neha Bora stood before the Delhi High Court on Thursday to fight a police notice that demanded she sign a Rs 10,000 personal bond, a move her legal team called a blatant overreach. The AISA president, who has led the charge against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, asked the court to quash the directive and stop coercive action against her. Her advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan did not mince words, telling the judges that the October 16 detention was 'completely illegal' and disconnected from the student leader's actual activities.
The core dispute centers on where Bora was when police grabbed her. Sankaranarayanan clarified that Bora was organizing her own protest at Mandi House, not the 'Lehra Do Tiranga' march by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Connaught Place. 'She is not involved with a separate call, which was called by another organisation (CJP) at Central Park,' he stated, emphasizing that police used buses to transport her away from lawyers and held her at RK Puram Police Station overnight. This sequence of events, he argued, violated her right to legal representation and due process.
Delhi Police issued the notice on October 17 under Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), a law empowering Senior Executive Magistrates to demand bonds if a person is likely to breach peace or commit a wrongful act. The notice specifically ordered Bora to appear before the SEM on October 19 to explain why she should not execute the bond with one surety 'for keeping peace for a period of enquiry.' Bora was released from preventive detention on October 17, but the legal shadow of the notice lingered until this Thursday's hearing.
The court will now decide whether the police action was proportionate or a violation of Bora's civil liberties. A ruling in her favor could set a precedent for how preventive detention is applied to student leaders during ongoing electoral roll protests. The next step depends on the HC's judgment, which could either dismiss the plea or issue specific directions to the Delhi Police regarding future coercive measures.