Supreme Court Rejects Man’s Request to Disable ‘Machine’ Controlling His Brain

The Supreme Court recently rejected a petition filed by a man who claimed that his brain was being controlled by someone else through a machine.

A delegation described the petition as strange, Judges Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah He declined, saying, “We don’t see any scope or justification for how we can intervene in this matter.”

The petitioner had first filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, alleging that some people had obtained a “human brain reading machine” from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad, and used the same on the petitioner. He looked for directions to disable the machine.

CFSL and CBI filed a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that no forensic examination was ever conducted on the petitioner, who is a teacher, hence the issue of disabling the machine allegedly used. It did not appear about the petitioner. Considering this, the Supreme Court in November 2022 dismissed the petition in which the petitioner himself appeared as a party.

He objected to the Supreme Court’s decision and filed a Special Leave Petition with the Supreme Court. On September 27, 2024, the Supreme Court expressed surprise at the petition. However, instead of rejecting the application outright, the Court directed the Legal Services Committee of the Supreme Court to arrange an interaction with the applicant in his native language in order to understand his genuine complaints.

After contacting the petitioner, the SCLSC filed a report with the Supreme Court stating that the petitioner sought the deactivation of the device that allegedly controlled his brain.

“This is strange prayer(s) made by the petitioner with a specific allegation that the petitioner’s ‘brain’ is controlled and is a machine used and operated in the hands of some people. We do not see scope and justification as to how we can intervene in this matter.” The court observed that the petition was dismissed.