India Detains Citizens for Justice Leaders at Delhi Airport Amid Protest

The detention of CJP leaders on a domestic flight before they could join an anti-Chief Election Commissioner protest signals the Indian government's use of preemptive containment to limit...

Indian authorities detained leaders of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) organization aboard Air India flight AI 2428 before the aircraft departed, preventing them from joining a scheduled protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi, according to The Hindu.

The detentions occurred inside the aircraft, before it pushed back from the gate. The CJP leaders were removed from the flight by police personnel and taken into custody, according to The Hindu's reporting on the sequence of events aboard AI 2428.

A separate incident connected to the same protest resulted in injuries to at least two Delhi Police personnel, including one member of the Pink Force, a unit composed of women officers, during the physical process of detaining protesters, according to a second report by The Hindu.

The CJP is a legal and civil rights organization founded by activist Teesta Setalvad. It has been involved in litigation related to communal violence cases in India and has maintained a position critical of several government actions over the past decade, according to the organization's publicly available records.

The protest targeted CEC Gyanesh Kumar, who was appointed Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025. Critics of the appointment, including opposition parties and some civil society organizations, objected to a 2023 amendment to the Election Commission of India Act that changed the panel selecting the CEC, removing the Chief Justice of India from that committee, according to Indian parliamentary records.

The amendment, passed by Parliament in December 2023, replaced the previous selection panel, which included the Chief Justice of India, with a committee comprising the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the Prime Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Opposition lawmakers argued at the time that this change reduced the independence of the election body, according to records of parliamentary debate.

The Supreme Court of India had directed in March 2023 that the selection committee should include the Chief Justice of India until Parliament legislated otherwise, according to that court ruling. Parliament's subsequent legislation formalized the current structure.

Preemptive detentions of political organizers before they reach protest sites have been used in India under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows police to detain individuals they believe may commit a cognizable offense. Whether that provision or another legal authority was cited in the AI 2428 detentions has not been confirmed in available reporting. The specific legal basis for the aircraft detentions was not stated in The Hindu's account as of publication.

The CJP's organizational activities and Setalvad's legal cases have previously drawn government scrutiny. Setalvad was arrested in June 2022 by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad following a Supreme Court order in a case related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, and was later granted bail by the Supreme Court, according to court records from that period.

What remains unknown is whether formal charges will be filed against those detained at the Delhi airport and on the ground at the protest site, and what official government statement, if any, will be issued to explain the legal authority under which the on-aircraft detentions were conducted. A formal charge sheet or government press release would clarify both points.