The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave the Centre a week to reply to an amendment application seeking to transfer the investigation against students and officers in the Jamia Millia violence case from police to an independent agency, Live Law reported.

The application to which the Centre has to reply has demanded an inquiry by the Special Investigation Agency Team.

On December 15, 2019, violence had erupted on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus during the student protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The Delhi Police was accused of barging into the university campus and using excessive force to quell the demonstrations. The police claimed its action was justified as the protestors had allegedly injured its personnel and set buses on fire.

The police have booked student activists Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Mohammed Ilyas, Belaal Nadeem, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mahmood Anwar, Mohammed Qasim, Umair Ahmad, Chanda Yadav and Abuzar in the case.

The Delhi High Court has been hearing a batch of petitions filed by lawyers, students of Jamia Millia Islamia University and residents of Okhla in south Delhi since 2019. However, so far no complaint has been filed against the police officials who attacked the students.

On October 19, the Supreme Court had asked the High Court to hear the matter about the alleged police brutality at the campus.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioners, had requested the judges to file the first information report against the police in the matter that has been pending before the Delhi High Court for nearly three years now.

However, the Supreme Court had said that it has “doubts about invoking” its jurisdiction in the issue. Gonsalves then requested the division bench to ask the Delhi High Court to finish the hearing within three weeks.

On Tuesday, the division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh listed the matter for December 13.