After the Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared states to continue investigations while protecting students from coercive action, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) says the ruling risks undoing the government’s own promise to withdraw protest-related FIRs, setting up a fresh constitutional confrontation over public assurances and executive accountability.The CJP mounted a sharp challenge to the implications of the Supreme Court’s interim order on the nationwide student protest cases, arguing that one part of the ruling could allow governments to continue pursuing criminal cases against protesters despite what it described as a “solemn assurance” from the Centre that such FIRs would be withdrawn.Abhijeet Dipke, founder of CJP, posted on his X handle, “If the harassment of students at the hands of the police continues, the Cockroach Janta Party will respond with a massive peaceful protest soon. The Govt must stop targeting and witch-hunting students.”While in an unusually strong statement, CJP chief spokesperson Saurav Das said the party’s concern was not with the Supreme Court’s decision to seek an independent investigation into the violence during the student protests, but with Direction No. 4 of the interim order, which permits states to continue investigations in FIRs already registered.According to Das, that direction creates a direct conflict with the assurance allegedly given by the Government of India on July 25, based on which the CJP ended its nationwide agitation.”The interim order passed by the Supreme Court… must ring alarm bells across the country,” Das said.He argued that allowing investigations to proceed “stands in direct contradiction to the solemn assurance and guarantee extended by the Government of India to the youth of this nation on July 25, 2026, namely, that the FIRs would be withdrawn and that no protester would be directly or indirectly targeted for participating in the peaceful movement.”Das said it was only because of that assurance that the CJP decided to call off its protests.”It was on the strength of that solemn assurance and in complete good faith, that the Cockroach Janta Party called off its nationwide protest,” he said.A new flashpoint after the protestsRather than questioning the Court’s proposal for an independent probe into the violence, the CJP’s response focuses on what happens after the protests have ended.Das claimed the party now fears that governments, particularly BJP-ruled states, could rely on the Supreme Court’s order permitting investigations to continue as justification for keeping criminal cases alive against individual protesters.”We now have a credible apprehension that the Government of India and BJP-ruled states may seek to use and weaponise this order… to continue FIRs against individual protesters and subject them to great harassment,” he said.He further alleged that this possibility had been the party’s principal concern throughout the agitation.”This was precisely our concern from day one: that courts could be used, directly or indirectly, to achieve political ends by targeting peaceful dissent.”Why the order has become contentiousThe Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated that it may constitute a Special Investigation Team headed by a former Supreme Court judge to independently examine allegations of violence during the nationwide student protests as well as injuries suffered by police personnel.SC’s Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana observed the petitions before it disclosed a prima facie case warranting an independent and impartial investigation.Pending further hearings, the Court directed authorities to preserve all CCTV footage, drone recordings, body-worn camera footage, videography, wireless communication records and PCR logs related to the protests.It also ordered governments not to publish protesters’ personal information or digital data collected during the demonstrations.Significantly, the Court permitted states to continue investigations in existing FIRs, but directed that no coercive action be taken against protesting students who have no criminal antecedents. It also ordered the release of detained children below 18 years of age without criminal backgrounds.It is this permission to continue investigations that has become the focal point of the CJP’s objections.’Government must not hide behind the Court’Das questioned why the government’s legal representatives had not informed the Supreme Court about what he described as ongoing discussions with the CJP that had culminated in an agreement on July 25.”Equally troubling is the fact that the interim order was not opposed by the government’s lawyers, despite the Central Government being fully aware that talks… had continued until as recently as late last night and that a solemn agreement had already been arrived at on July 25.”Calling the interim order “uninformed”, he said it should not be allowed to dilute commitments already made to thousands of protesters.”A solemn public assurance given to thousands of young students and protesters cannot be diluted, undermined or rendered meaningless through subsequent legal developments,” Das said.However, he also acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s order does not prevent governments from withdrawing cases if they choose to do so.”Nothing in the interim order prevents the Government of India or the concerned BJP/NDA ruled State Governments from withdrawing the FIRs or deciding not to proceed against peaceful protesters,” he said, adding that “the power to withdraw or not pursue such cases continues to rest with the executive.”He urged the Centre not to invoke the Court’s order “as a justification for reneging on the commitment it made on July 25.”CJP seeks disclosure before Supreme CourtThe party has now demanded that the Government of India formally place the alleged assurances made to the CJP before the Supreme Court in the pending proceedings.According to Das, doing so would ensure “complete transparency regarding the commitments already made to the youth of this country” and enable the Court to consider those assurances while issuing future orders.He argued that constitutional institutions should not become instruments through which governments avoid political commitments.”The youth of India entered into this understanding in good faith. That good faith must not be betrayed,” he said.Protest may resumeThe statement concluded with a warning that the CJP would revive its nationwide agitation if the commitments made by the government are not honoured.Das said the deadline for implementing the assurances expired on Tuesday and reiterated the party’s demands that all protest-related FIRs be withdrawn, no protesters face future punitive action, and the government honour both “the letter and the spirit” of its commitments.”Failing this… the Cockroach Janta Party will have no option but to resume its nationwide protest,” he said.He added that if the guarantees are dishonoured, “the streets of India will once again become the voice of its young.”