Allahabad High Court on Tuesday took cognisance of the “situation in Uttar Pradesh” and registered a public interest litigation (PIL).

A bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Vivek Varma took suo moto cognisance of incidents that took place in the state after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, was enacted, including the widespread protests.

The court, which sought to convert an email from Bombay High Court lawyer Ajay Kumar into a PIL, cited news reports from Uttar Pradesh, including by The Telegraph and The New York Times.

Referring to the email, the court said: “It is alleged that the situation in the State of Uttar Pradesh is antithetical to core constitutional values and warrants interference of this Court.”

In December, Uttar Pradesh witnessed violent protests in several cities over the citizenship law and the state’s brutal response. News reports from multiple media outlets, including this website, revealed a saga of barbaric police action in many instances.

The same bench heard another writ petition on Tuesday on the “alleged display of police brutality upon students who were protesting” against the law. The petition demanded an investigation into the police crackdown in Aligarh Muslim University on December 15 by a special investigation team consisting of independent police officers for a fair investigation.

In its response, the Uttar Pradesh police had countered that the petition didn’t represent true facts.

“Having no other option, the district administration decided to enter into University campus to disburse gathering and preventing the property from being damaged. In the course of action, 26 persons were arrested and some of them were found injured,” the police had said.

The bench, however, refused to constitute a special team. It asked the National Human Rights Commission to conduct an inquiry, saying that it was already conducting a similar inquiry on the complaint of students and faculty members of Jamia Millia Islamia.

The commission has been given a month to complete the inquiry and the matter has been listed for hearing on February 17.