Delhi HC issues notice to police on Umar Khalid’s bail plea

In his appeal, Khalid contended that the trial court had erred in refusing to entertain his fresh bail plea.

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice on a bail petition filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Umar Khalid in the Delhi riots conspiracy case, while also seeking Delhi Police’s response to his plea for interim bail.

A bench of justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan directed additional solicitor general SV Raju and advocate Dhruv Pande, appearing for Delhi Police, to file replies to Khalid’s appeal against a May 4 trial court order rejecting his bail and to his application seeking interim bail.

The matter has been listed for hearing on August 27, when the court will also hear co-accused Sharjeel Imam’s challenge to the same trial court order.

“Considering the nature of the matter, issue notice on the appeal and the application for interim bail. List on August 27,” the bench ordered.

Khalid had sought interim bail in light of the Supreme Court’s May 22 decision referring to the Chief Justice of India the larger question of how its 2021 judgment in Union of India vs KA Najeeb should apply to cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, involving prolonged incarceration and delayed trials. In the same order, the apex court had granted interim bail to two co-accused in the Delhi riots conspiracy case.

On July 4, additional sessions judge Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma Courts had rejected fresh bail pleas filed by Khalid and Imam, holding that there were no grounds to entertain them. The judge observed that the Supreme Court had already referred to a larger bench the apparent divergence between its January 5 ruling in the Gulfisha Fatima case and a subsequent decision in Syed Iftikhar Andrabi. Until that issue is settled, the trial court held, it could not examine whether there had been a change in circumstances warranting fresh consideration of bail.

The reference arose after the Supreme Court expressed “serious reservations” about whether the January 5 judgment had correctly applied the principles laid down in the 2021 judgment in Union of India vs KA Najeeb, which held that prolonged incarceration and delay in trial could override the stringent bail restrictions under Section 43D(5) of UAPA.

In his appeal, Khalid contended that the trial court had erred in refusing to entertain his fresh bail plea. He argued that the trial had made virtually no progress since the Supreme Court rejected his earlier bail plea in January, with charges yet to be framed despite his continued incarceration.

The Delhi Police arrested Sharjeel Imam on January 28, 2020. Police booked them under the stringent UAPA, alleging that they were the “intellectual architects” behind the conspiracy that culminated in the communal violence following protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The riots, which began on February 23, 2020, left 53 people dead and hundreds injured. Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020, while Khalid was arrested in September 2020 under the provisions of the UAPA.