Open Letter from the Constitutional Conduct Group on police brutality in Delhi on 20 July 2026

24 July 2026
To
The Prime Minister of India
The Union Home Minister
The Lt. Governor of NCT of Delhi The Commissioner of Police, Delhi

Subject: Condemnation of Brutal Police Action Against Peaceful Student Protesters in Delhi on 20 July 2026 and Urgent Call for Accountability and Dialogue

We, the members of the Constitutional Conduct Group, a collective of former civil servants belonging to the All India Services and the Central Services with no political affiliation and committed to the promotion of the foundational values of our Republic and the observance of norms of constitutional conduct, are deeply shocked and greatly anguished by the brutal police action against peaceful student protesters ventilating legitimate nationwide grievances, during and after the Sansad Chalo march in Delhi on 20 July 2026.

2. Reports indicate that the Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel used pellet guns, electrical batons (tasers) and tear gas against demonstrators resulting in serious injuries to several youth, including to a young protester, who required surgery to remove pellets from near his eye and neck. A 15-year-old child was among those injured and hospitalized. Disturbing visuals also show several policemen and RAF personnel, some with no name tags, and plainclothes men and policemen in civilian attire, mercilessly lashing out at protestors, including young women, with lathis, in some cases embedded with nails; sexual misbehavior by at least one policeman who should be identified and given exemplary punishment; the suspicious parking of a truck filled with stones despite strict checking in a high-security area and stone-throwing by policemen; and the questionable rounding up and movement of protestors from police station to police station without access to lawyers. This may well be the first time that such force has been used against unarmed young protestors agitating for their legitimate right of education and work on such a scale anywhere in India.

3. Even more alarming were visuals of armed police with guns trained at the gates of Parliament in case the march reached there. Orders were issued on July 23 to close down offices and shops in central Delhi on top of disruptions in mass transport and metro services to make it difficult for citizens to reach the protest site, and to shut down internet services. Facial Recognition Vans were deployed to live-scan peaceful protesters, constituting a violation of the citizen’s fundamental right to privacy, enunciated by the Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy case, which could be weaponised as tools of intimidation and suppression of fundamental rights. Most worrying are orders and visuals deploying CRPF in riot gear to the protest sites.

4. Such use of illegal and disproportionate force in the national capital against young citizens exercising their democratic rights is unacceptable and reflect unfortunate precedents earlier set in JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia in 2019 & 2020. We also note that the state has been derelict in its duty of orderly management of crowds at the protest site and during the protest march, leaving that entirely to the organizers, and in fact, creating stampede inducing situations by the use of barricades to confine protestors in small spaces.

5. Under public pressure, a meaningless dialogue was started, with photo-op visits to the injured in hospitals. The list of those arrested has not been released. The Government has also not uttered a word on those NEET candidates who committed suicide. Perhaps the greatest shock of all is the Supreme Court’s reported refusal to hear a plea against police action on the young protestors on the grounds that they did not have time to “waste” to watch ‘videos’.

6. In a democracy, the right to peaceful protest is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution. Students, many as young as 14 years old, took to the streets not out of mischief or to indulge in vandalism but because of the out of desperation over their futures imperiled by repeated examination scandals, paper leaks, administrative failures and policy mismanagement in the education sector. These young citizens deserve empathy, dialogue, protection and solutions, not pellets and lathis.
It is also beyond comprehension that instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue, the government has chosen suppression and deflection. Students are the future of this nation. Refusing to address their genuine grievances while deploying force against them marks an indifference to the future of the entire country, erodes public trust and violates the spirit of constitutional governance.

7. We are deeply disturbed to note that the use of police repression and state violence is increasingly becoming the norm to counter any public protest or agitation. This is especially reprehensible when the protesters are students as young as thirteen and fourteen years, many
of them girls. It is also beyond comprehension that instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue, the government has chosen suppression and deflection. Students are the future of this nation. Refusing to address their genuine grievances while deploying force against them marks an indifference to the future of the entire country, erodes public trust and violates the spirit of constitutional governance.

8. The members of the Constitutional Conduct Group demand:

(i) An independent judicial inquiry into the police action of 20 July 2026, including the use of pellet guns and shock batons in Delhi;
(ii) Immediate suspension of and departmental action against officers responsible for ordering and using disproportionate force and impermissible techniques;
(iii) Unconditional release of any detained students, medical care for all injured, and compensation for all those injured in the police action in proportion to the seriousness of their injuries;
(iv) Immediate initiation of structured dialogue with student representatives on examination reforms, accountability of NTA, and long-term changes in the education system;
(v) Withdrawal of all police cases in respect of those protesters against whom there is no credible and independent evidence of committing any act of violence; and
(vi) Review of Crowd Management Drill/Instructions on use of force in police academies and training schools, and psychological assessment of all candidates before recruitment in the police force.
(v) Withdrawal of all police cases in respect of those protesters against whom there is no credible and independent evidence of committing any act of violence; and
(vi) Review of Crowd Management Drill/Instructions on use of force in police academies and training schools, and psychological assessment of all candidates before recruitment in the police force.

9. The government must remember that its primary duty is to serve the people, especially the youth who represent India’s demographic dividend. Repression will only deepen alienation. Dialogue and accountability are the hallmarks of a mature democracy.

10. We urge you to uphold the Constitution in both letter and spirit. Restore faith in democratic institutions before it is too late.

SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Constitutional Conduct Group (93 signatories, at pages 3-6 below)

1. Anita Agnihotri
2. Anand Arni
3. Mohinderpal Aulakh
4. Aruna Bagchee
5. J.L. Bajaj
6. G. Balachandhran
7. Vappala Balachandran
8. Chandrashekar Balakrishnan
9. Sushant Baliga
10. Sharad Behar
11. Madhu Bhaduri
12. K.V. Bhagirath
13. Nutan Guha Biswas
14. Meeran C Borwankar
15. Ravi Budhiraja
16. Maneshwar Singh Chahal
17. R. Chandramohan
18. Kalyani $ Chaudhuri
19. Gurjit Singh Cheema
20. F.T.R. Colaso
21. Pradeep K. Deb
22. Nitin Desai
23. Sushil Dubey
24. A.S. Dulat
25. K.P. Fabian
26. Prabhu Ghate
27. Suresh K. Goel
28. S.K. Guha
29. Meena Gupta
30. Sajjad Hassan
31. Syed Masood Husain
32. Siraj Hussain
33. Kamal Jaswal
34. Ashish Joshi
35. Najeeb Jung
36. Sanjay Kaul
37. Gita Kripalani
38. Ashok Kumar
39. Ish Kumar
40. Sudhir Kumar
41. Subodh Lal
42. Ashok Lavasa
43. Dinesh Malhotra
44. P.M.S. Malik
45. Harsh Mander
46. AmitabhMathur
47. Aditi Mehta
48. Shivshankar Menon
49. Malay Mishra
50. Satya Narayan Mohanty
51. Sudhansu Mohanty
52. Anup Mukerji
53. Deb Mukharji
54. Jayashree Mukherjee
55. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee
56. Gautam Mukhopadhaya
57. P. Joy Oommen
58. Amitabha Pande
59. Alok Perti
60. Gurnihal Singh Pirzada
61. Jayant Prasad
62. Rajesh Prasad
63. Smita Purushottam
64. T.R. Raghunandan
65. N.K. Raghupathy
66. V.P. Raja
67. V. Ramani
68. M. Rameshkumar
69. K. Sujatha Rao
70. Madhukumar Reddy A.
71. Satwant Reddy
72. Julio Ribeiro
73. Aruna Roy
74. A.K. Samanta
75. Deepak Sanan
76. G.V . Venugopala Sarma
77. N.C. Saxena
78. Ardhendu Sen
79. Abhijit Sengupta
80. Aftab Seth
81. Ashok Kumar Sharma
82. Ashok Kumar Sharma
83. Navrekha Sharma
84. Pravesh Sharma
85. Raju Sharma
86. Avay Shukla
87. Ajai Kumar Singh
88. Sujatha Singh
89. Tara Ajai Singh
90. Prakriti Srivastava
91. Anup Thakur 92. Geetha Thoopal IRAS Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata (Retd.)
93. Rudi Warjri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica