The police have been banned from using water cannons, tear gas, live ammunition, rubber bullets, or any other crude weapons and harsh measures, as well as from deploying brute force or any form of violence against those protesting the Finance Bill, 2024.

This decision follows a petition by Saitabao Ole Kanchory. The court has also issued an order preventing the police from engaging in extrajudicial killings, arrests, abductions, detentions, harassment, intimidation, torture, or any cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of protestors against the Finance Bill, 2024.

“I find the petitioner has demonstrated that the petition is arguable and not frivolous, and secondly, that it is in the public interest that the orders sought are granted,” ruled Justice Mugure Thande.

In the petition, Kanchory argues that the police have resorted to arbitrary arrests and illegal abductions of protestors, along with intimidation and harassment. According to him, the police have violated protestors’ rights to liberty and freedom from torture.

“The 1st and 2nd Respondents have deployed the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to harass and intimidate perceived leaders of the Gen Z,” state the court documents. He further claims that Gen Zs, being youth, are members of a vulnerable group requiring special protection under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution