MUMBAI, Oct. 14 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to issue blanket orders restraining the police from detaining protesters seeking the removal of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged election malpractices, but said it would ensure that no person is illegally detained in instances brought to its notice. "We cannot straight away say no detention at all," the division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna said while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate and activist Sagar Kantilal Devre, questioning the alleged illegal detention of protesters during the anti-CEC protests held in the city on October 10 and 11. The judges, however, asked Devre to bring on record specific cases of illegal detention. "We will take care of the issue, but obviously we will not permit this (illegal detention). Each and every example needs to be brought on record," the court said, posting the matter for further hearing on October 19. In the petition filed on Monday, Devre alleged that during protests seeking the removal of the CEC at August Kranti Maidan, Nana Chowk, Hutatma Chowk and Shivaji Park on October 10 and 11, more than 600 and 300 people, respectively, were detained by the police. Alongside protesters, detainees included passers-by, women, a mother with her child, a senior citizen with a pacemaker, a 22-year old girl who was only recording the event, and a young man who suffered a panic attack inside Tardeo police station, Devre said. He also alleged that the police searched for and picked up people from their homes merely because they were named as accused in cases registered during protests in July 2026 against irregularities in the NEET-UG exam, although such cases were subsequently quashed by the Supreme Court. The petition further alleged that the police neither produced any arrest memo, nor communicated the grounds of arrest before detaining people. "If the police may stop, lift and carry away any person walking on a public road because a protest is happening somewhere in the city, no citizen can move freely on the streets of this city. That is a direct violation of the Constitution of India," it said....