The Delhi High Court heard Neha Bora's challenge to a police peace bond notice. The plea raises concerns over preventive powers and the right to peaceful dissent.Image used for representational purposes onlyNewdelhi,Oct 22, 2026 17:50 ISTThe Delhi High Court will pass an order on October 23 on All India Students' Association president Neha Bora's plea challenging a police notice that asked her to execute a bond to maintain peace before a special executive magistrate, news agency Press Trust of India reported.Justice Subramonium Prasad reserved the order after hearing arguments from Bora's counsel and the Delhi Police for nearly three hours on Thursday. "I will pass order tomorrow 6 PM," the judge said.Bora, who has been at the forefront of protests against alleged irregularities in the Election Commission's special intensive revision of electoral rolls, has sought the quashing of the notice and directions to the police not to take any coercive action against her.Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Bora, argued that the special executive magistrate had issued the notice without applying his mind and that it was merely a cut-and-paste exercise.
Referring to the notice's claim that Bora had hoisted the national flag without permission, Sankaranarayanan said citizens did not need permission to do so. "Question is does this notice have substance? We don't need permission to hoist the national flag.
They need a class on law," he said.Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, representing the Delhi Police, questioned whether Bora's petition was maintainable. He said substantial material was available before the special executive magistrate when the notice was issued and that the magistrate had applied his mind, according to PTI.
The notice, issued on October 17 under Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, directed Bora to appear before the special executive magistrate on October 19 and explain why she should not execute a personal bond of Rs 10,000 with one surety "for keeping peace for a period of enquiry".Section 126 allows a special executive magistrate to require such a bond if there is credible information that a person is likely to breach the peace, disturb public tranquillity or commit an act that may cause disturbance.Bora was taken into preventive detention on October 16 while she was on her way to join the Cockroach Janta Party's "Lehra Do Tiranga" march. She was released on October 17.In her petition, settled by lawyer Abhik Chimni, Bora said the police notice was vague and factually incorrect and did not contain any material to support the claim that she was likely to breach the peace.The plea said the notice did not identify the "period, occasion or event in relation to which breach is apprehended".
It alleged that the proceedings were a "colourable exercise of preventive powers to suppress peaceful dissent, in violation of Articles 19(1)(a), 19(1)(b) and 21 of the Constitution".The proceedings before the special executive magistrate are based on allegations that Bora raised slogans at Mandi House on October 16, repeatedly protested around Jantar Mantar despite restrictions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and encouraged people to join a protest in Connaught Place on October 16."The impugned notice rests on a prima facie incorrect fact, namely that the petitioner instigated people to participate in the demonstration at Central Park, Connaught Place on 16.10.2026. The petitioner's call and the incident alleged were different.
The petitioner called for a peaceful gathering at Mandi House at 5:00 PM on 16.10.2026, and it is a matter of record that she was detained from Mandi House," the petition said.It added: "That the alleged disregard of 'prohibitory orders 163 BNSS' in the Notice does not identify any specific prohibitory order and incident. In fact the only order on record dated 23.08.2026 does not extend to Mandi House and exempts Jantar Mantar Road."The High Court will deliver its order on October 23 after considering Bora's challenge to the peace bond notice and the Delhi Police's objection to her petition.- Ends