Delhi HC refuses to stay city court order framing charges against Sharjeel Imam
The 37-year-old student leader was arrested in January 2020 for his alleged role in fanning communal tensions during the anti-CAA protests
The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to stay the city court’s order framing charges against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Sharjeel Imam in the 2019 Jamia violence case.
The case stems from the 2019-2020 protests at Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh following passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Parliament on December 11, 2019.
The 37-year-old student leader was arrested in January 2020 for his alleged role in fanning communal tensions during the anti-CAA protests. He has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying it was based on edited video clips.
On March 7, the city court had framed charges under various provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 109 (abetment of an offence), Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), Sections 143, 147, 148, 149 (unlawful assembly and rioting), Sections 186, 353, 332, 333, 308, 427, 435, 323, 341 (various charges related to assault, obstruction of public servants, grievous hurt, and damage to property) and Sections 3/4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
Also Read: Delhi Police oppose Sharjeel Imam’s bail plea in high court
A bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order after Imam represented by advocate Ahmad Ibrahim requested the court to stay the March 7 order, asserting that the matter was scheduled for further hearing before the city court on April 23. He further said that the order was erroneous since it was passed without due application of mind.
However, Justice Narula said that he would not stay the order without hearing the Delhi Police.
“I’m not staying any order right now. There is no question. I’ll issue notice in the petition,” justice Narula said to Ibrahim.
The court then issued notice in the plea and asked Delhi police to respond till April 24, the next date of hearing.
Imam had approached the high court against the city court’s March 7 order.
In the order, the city court had observed that Imam was not only an instigator but also one of the “kingpins” of the larger conspiracy to incite violence during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in Delhi in 2019.
Additional sessions judge Vishal Singh, presiding over the case at Saket Court had also described Imam’s speeches as “venomous,” aimed at pitting one religious community against another and inciting mass-scale disruption through unlawful means.
Judge Singh had observed that Imam systematically orchestrated inflammatory speeches across multiple locations, including Munirka, Nizamuddin, Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Nagar, in December 2019 and the same were intended to provoke the minority community against the government’s implementation of the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
In his petition, also argued by advocate Talib Mustafa, the 37-year-old student leader had asserted that the city court’s order was also ex-facie illegal since it not only fails to record any finding with regards to the ingredients under section 153A being met but also wrongly reads the speech dated December 13, 2019 in question and ignores the most relevant parts.
“The Ld. Trial Court has grossly erred in coming to the finding that mere invocation of Muslim unity by the petitioner in his speech would attract applicability of section 153A even in absence of no pitting up of two religious community/ groups against each other,” the plea stated.
