A file photo of Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the petitioners who had approached it to take cognisance of the violence over the citizenship act to knock on the doors of High Court first.
Hearing a plea on the violence over the citizenship act in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, the apex court said that it couldn’t take note of everything happening in the country.
The apex court said that it won’t act as a trial court in the matter.
The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act turned particularly violent in Murshidabad last week, after several Muslim organisations issued a protest call against the legislation after the Friday prayers. A cop was injured during the protests, with several vehicles also torched during the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, protests continued in parts of West Bengal for the fifth day on Tuesday against the amended Citizenship Act.
Agitators raised slogans against the new Citizenship Act at Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district.
The police has stepped up vigil across the state and as many as 354 protesters were arrested for violence.
Several trains to north Bengal were either cancelled or delayed, officials said.
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to lead a rally from Jadavpur 8B bus stand to Bhawanipore in south Kolkata area against the citizenship law.
Banerjee, who led a mega rally from Red Road to Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the ancestral house of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in north Kolkata on Monday, had urged the agitators to not indulge in vandalism and arson.
The chief minister had declared on Monday that the Amended Citizenship Act and the National Register of Citizensh could be enforced in the state only over her "dead body".
Road and rail blockades were witnessed in the state on Monday as violent protests over the contentious Citizenship Act refused to die down, amid warning by state authorities and appeal from the chief minister.
(with PTI inputs)
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