Overview
- A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant on Tuesday used Article 142 to quash FIRs linked to nationwide NEET-UG 2026 protests and ordered those cases closed and not investigated.
- The Centre and several state governments asked the court to shut the cases to protect students’ futures, and the bench allowed separate enquiries only into roughly 2,873 people alleged to have prior records or links to violence.
- Article 142 gives the Supreme Court a broad remedial power to make orders that ensure complete justice, but the court’s own precedents limit that power where an order would conflict with the Constitution or affect people not before the court.
- The ruling immediately removes the threat of long criminal probes for many Gen Z protesters, prompted the Cockroach Janta Party to cancel a planned march, and narrows who law enforcement may still examine.
- Legal experts say the order will be tested against cases such as Prem Chand Garg (1963), Delhi Judicial Service Association (1991), Supreme Court Bar Association (1998), Shilpa Sailesh (2023) and High Court Bar Association, Allahabad (2024) to define how far Article 142 can reach.