The Supreme Court on Wednesday posted for January 24 the hearing on the bail plea of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid, an accused of being part of an alleged conspiracy behind the North-East Delhi riots in February 2020. Khalid has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Reluctantly adjourning the matter listed for hearing today on the request of the senior advocate Kapil Sibal and the advocate for Delhi Police, a bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal said: “The impression goes that the court is not taking up the matter.”
The bench granted adjournment on the joint request of Sibal appearing for Khalid and on behalf of the Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal requested for adjournment, saying he is engaged in a constitution bench hearing today and for the Delhi Police, the adjournment was sought due to unavailability ASG Raju.
The bench was initially reluctant to adjourn the matter. However, after repeated requests by Sibal and the advocate for the Delhi Police, it deferred the hearing, saying that no further adjournment will be granted.
“The impression goes that the court is not taking up the matter,” the bench said as counsels were requesting for adjournment.
Sibal had earlier told the court that certain provisions of the UAPA, including provisions concerning terrorism, raising funds for terrorist acts and conspiracy did not apply in the case of Umar Khalid.
Khalid had approached the top court challenging an October 2022 Delhi High Court verdict that had denied bail to him.
Khalid was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020, and had sought bail on grounds that he neither had any “criminal role” in the violence in the city’s North-East area nor any “conspiratorial connect” with any other accused in the case. The Delhi Police had opposed Khalid’s bail plea before the High Court.
Khalid had approached the High Court challenging the dismissal of his bail application by the trial court in March 2022.
He was charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly as well as several provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Besides Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, activist Khalid Saifi, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others were booked under the stringent law in the case.
The violence had erupted during the protests against CAA and NRC and had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.