NEW DELHI, March 8 -- A Delhi court on Saturday pulled up the city police for filing a charge sheet "without application of mind" in a case pertaining to a protest held last year at Jantar Mantar against the UGC Regulations Draft. The order was passed by additional chief judicial magistrate Paras Dalal of Rouse Avenue Courts. The judge observed, "it appears that the present challan has been forwarded in a mechanical manner without application of mind". The court also observed that the investigating officer (IO) filed an application seeking further investigation in the matter without disclosing or bringing any new evidence into notice of the court. The court said that police had not laid out a clear timeline within which it will complete the investigation. The order said, "the present is not a case of oversight or inadvertence in forwarding the entire material before the court alongwith the challan but in the absence of clear explanations appears to be clear cut omission of lawful duties by the investigating officer (IO), SHO and the ACP concerned". The case pertains to a protest held on February 6 last year when DMK workers led by the party's students wing secretary CVMP Ezhilarasan, held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar against new UGC Guidelines Draft 2025. Police said the protest had no permission as Section 163 of Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was in force, prohibiting any gathering of multiple people. The charge sheet named Ezhilarasan and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal and former Rajya Sabha member D Raja, who police said were seen addressing the gathering. In the previous hearing, the court noted that the place of incident even as per the prosecution's case was Jantar Mantar, which came under the exempted category. In Saturday's order, the court brought the matter to the notice of Delhi Police Commissioner and directed police to file a status report again on March 20....