Between June and August 2026, two examination-integrity protests, one in New Delhi over the NEET-UG paper leak and one in Ranchi over irregularities in Jharkhand's public-service recruitment examinations, tested the operative Indian doctrine on peaceful assembly against a police response that included tear gas, water cannon, and district-wide internet suspension. This paper restates that doctrine with precision, drawn from In Re: Ramlila Maidan Incident, Amit Sahni v Commissioner of Police, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v Union of India, and Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India , and tests it against the documented record of both episodes, including a Delhi High Court public-interest petition against the internet shutdown orders that was withdrawn, unadjudicated, once the protest ended. It argues that the deficiency is not doctrinal, since existing precedent already supplies a workable proportionality and transparency standard, but operational. There is no mechanism to make that standard bind a police officer or a district magistrate in real time, only a slow judicial review that in this instance never reached a hearing on the merits.