'Does Section 144 follow us around?': Maruti Suzuki workers detained, humiliated by police inside Gurgaon labour court

In Gurgaon, a peaceful protest led by Maruti Suzuki’s contractual workers rallying for equal pay and dignity faces its toughest battle yet - the ominous Section 144. After a violent police clampdown blocked a tripartite meeting between the automobile giant’s management, labour department and the protestors, a reporter recounts the harrowing details.

The recently formed Maruti Suzuki Asthayi Mazdur Sangh—a first of its kind organised labour front for contract & temporary hires—faced a major setback on Friday, 31st of January 2025, when the mass detention of its members within the District Court premises led to the cancellation of their highly anticipated tripartite meeting with the Maruti Suzuki management & labour department officials. The meeting had been scheduled by the labour court on the 10th of January, the same day thousands of current & erstwhile temporary Maruti workers from across different parts of the country gathered outside the DC office to demand the government's attention.

The chain of events

Initially, the workers had gathered outside the Deputy Commissioner's office starting around 9AM, but police officers roaming the premises asked them to vacate the area & gather elsewhere. With the police's permission, Khushi Ram, a terminated Maruti worker & respected leader of the Maruti Suzuki Struggle Committee (MSSC)—the parent union of the MSAMS—moved the workers to a small park inside the Mini Secretariat. The process cost the workers precious time ahead of their hearing, which had been scheduled for 10AM. But when I arrived at the scene at the hour, the court's call still hadn't come.

'Does Section 144 follow us around?': Maruti Suzuki workers detained, humiliated by police inside Gurgaon labour court

Indiscriminate and excessive curfews under Section 144 of CrPC are unconstitutional

One means by which Maruti-Suzuki disguises the severe pay disparity between its permanent & temporary workers, the former earning about 1.3 Lakhs per month & the latter between 15 and 30 thousand as per workers, is through its litany of categories for contractual work: TW1, TW2, apprentice, trainee, CW, & so on. Inside the park, around 70–80 workers had been seated in files according to their categories on the grass as they marked their attendance: silent, peaceful & organised. More were still arriving, and settling into their files easily.

At the gate, a former worker from Rajasthan named Roshan Lal Athariya, who'd served the company on & off in 3 separate cycles on a contractual basis over the course of six years, kept an eye out for straggling workers who'd got lost in the confusion due to the change of location; or those who were afraid to enter the gate for fear of capture.

"They're all coming from different places. The police buses dropped them all off faraway," Roshan told me. Workers had been scattered all across the city due to another round of mass detentions that had already taken place the previous day. The ruthless police crackdown since Tuesday evening on the workers, many of whom had travelled over from other states, had left the young men isolated, scared, & roofless. Workers had been detained in police buses & released in faraway locations repeatedly since Wednesday. As a result, many of them were anxious about walking into the proverbial lion's den that is the court premises, crawling with cops. Those who'd managed to remain in the city but couldn't bring themselves to face the police began gathering at Kamala Nehru Park, around 800 metres away from the Secretariat.

Rights for Me but Not for Thee: The BJP's Hypocrisy

It should be noted that protest in question at the Supreme Court was organised by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party itself in Jharkhand, where they aren't in power—unlike Haryana. Party members alongside an alleged crowd of over '5000 people' protested against the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government back in 2023, & involved violation of several publically proclaimed orders of Section 144 based on accusations of crowd violence resulting in the injury of at least six police personnel & 'several journalists'. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Jharkhand High Court quashed the cases against 28 BJP officials, & the apex court backed the judgement along with its emphasis on the rights to protest, assemble, & move freely.

In contrast, the declaration of Section 144 against the workers of Maruti Suzuki by the police in BJP-ruled Haryana seems to require little more than spoken word, & be based on little more than hearsay. In a notice submitted to the workers on the 29th of January, a mere day ahead of their rally at Manesar & two days ahead of their tripartite meeting, the Manesar-Gurgaon police station stated that their rally, of which they had learnt through certain "secret sources", could not be allowed due to lack of 'permission from senior officials.' The senior officials in question here, were not those of any law enforcement agency, but those of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. itself, which still employs a considerable number of the temporary workers within the MSAMS.

The company had filed for an official stay order against the rally at the Gurgaon Civil Court, which seems to be what was covertly referenced by the police in their notice. But when the civil court's judgement came, much like the Jharkhand High Court did with the BJP's protest, it sided with the protesters. The court granted permission for the protest march, provided that it keep 500m away from the company's plants, & the workers were overjoyed. A few hours later, the police implemented S.144 in the area, detained all workers in sight, & cleaned up the camp, over 2km away from the nearest plant.

'Does Section 144 follow us around?': Maruti Suzuki workers detained, humiliated by police inside Gurgaon labour court

Rights for Me but Not for Thee: The BJP's Hypocrisy

The Contrasting Accounts of On-Field Reporters & Remote Correspondents