New Delhi: Two pellet injury victims, Prashant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoor, have filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on the use of “partly or wholly” metallic pellet guns for crowd control against civilian assemblies. Former Intelligence Bureau special director and former central information commissioner Yashovardhan Azad is the first petitioner in the case and the victims are petitioners 1 and 2.“The present Public Interest Litigation is filed seeking urgent relief(s) from this Hon’ble Court to safeguard the constitutional and fundamental rights of India’s youth protesters and civilian assemblies,” says the petition.A number of young protesters participating in the ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest on July 20, 2026 were injured, allegedly by pellet guns.The petition says that Prashant Singh and Sheikh Mansoor “personally witnessed” that around 4-4:30 pm on that day, the police and RAF personnel “incessantly fired tear gas shells and resorted to lathi charge”. It states that the protesters were pushed towards Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place) with tear gas and lathi charge before the pellet guns were used.It says that no water cannons were deployed and no warnings were issued before the force against them was escalated. “While the protesters were fleeing, with many raising their arms up as if in ‘surrender’ mode, despite no provocation, RAF personnel suddenly fired pump action gun(s), releasing a wide spray of splinters and pellets, which penetrated the Petitioner No. 2 and 3’s bodies and caused immediate pain and bleeding,” the petition says.Pellet injuriesIt further alleges that, to the petitioners’ knowledge and based on publicly available records, the Bureau for Police Research and Development (BPRD) has not published any study assessing the efficacy or suitability of using pump action rifles or projectile action guns loaded with wholly or partly metallic pellets for crowd control. The BPRD was part of a home ministry task force that developed the Standard Operating Procedures for crowd control.The petition explains that projectile action guns (PAGs), or pellet guns, are typically .12 bore pump action shotguns. It says that while the weapon itself is a standard shotgun, what makes it a pellet gun is the type of cartridge it uses. Unlike a conventional bullet, which is aimed at a specific target, a pellet cartridge releases hundreds of small projectiles that spread over a wide area after ricocheting and breaking apart.According to the petition, this makes pellet guns inherently inaccurate and creates a high risk of causing injuries to the eyes and other vital organs, even when the weapon is intended to be fired at non-vital parts of the body.“This is not only the theoretically sound explanation of the working of the pellet guns, but also the documented experience of the use of such guns on assemblies in Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur in the last two decades,” says the petition.Home affairs task force on crowd controlThe petition points out that a task force was set up by the Union ministry of home affairs and did not consider, nor approved, the use lethal weapons, specifically the .12 bore pump action rifles fitted with metallic pellets, known to have been used against the protesters in Delhi.The task force, of which the director general of the Central Reserve Police Force was a member, examined non-lethal crowd-control options including plastic bullets, tasers, net guns, laser dazzlers, Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), pepper ball launchers, tear gas shells, stingers and dye markers.The petitionersThe two injured petitioners underwent medical treatment, including surgery to remove pellets lodged in their bodies at Lady Hardinge Hospital. The petition also refers to media reports and medical records of at least four people sustaining pellet injuries during the protest.The Wire reported in detail on the injuries inflicted on Sheikh Mansoor while he participated in the march towards parliament. Several others have, too, including Outlook magazine and AltNews fact checker Mohammad Zubair have highlighted the use of pellet guns during the protest.An RAF inquiry set up after outrage over the use of such a weapon on protesting youth has reportedly found that seven rounds of pellets were fired by RAF personnel on July 20 in the Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place) area, injuring five protesters.Also read: Severe Pellet-Like Injuries on Delhi Youth Protester, Police Deny Pellet UseThe petition argues that pellet guns are inherently unsuitable for dispersing civilian assemblies because they fire hundreds of projectiles over a wide area. “Projectile action guns are per se unfit for dispersal of peaceful assemblies, and the petitioners contend that use of such weapons should be banned/decommissioned in deployment of security personnel when dealing with civilian assemblies,” it states.It further contends that the use of metallic pellets fails the constitutional tests of necessity, proportionality and reasonableness and relies on domestic case law as well as United Nations guidelines on the use of force. The petition states that the 2020 UN Guidance on Less Lethal Weapons advises that “metal pellets should never be used”.The petition seeks directions banning the use of metallic pellet guns for crowd dispersal. It also seeks exemplary compensation, medical treatment and rehabilitation for those injured during the firing as the protesters tried to reach parliament on July 20, 2026.