Supreme Court Bail Plea Hearing LIVE: The Supreme Court on Thursday referred to a larger bench the question raised over the correctness of its earlier judgment denying bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the Delhi riots case. In the same verdict, the court granted interim bail to two accused, Tasleem Ahmed and Khalid Saifi, in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and P B Varale provided relief to the two accused while imposing strict conditions.
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“In all probability, you will get relief,” the bench had earlier told senior advocate Rebecca John, who appeared for Khalid.
The top court had earlier adjourned the bail pleas of the two accused in the 2020 Northeast Delhi communal riots case that challenged a Delhi High Court order denying them bail.
The court posted the matter for hearing today but indicated that it was, prima facie, in favour of granting them the relief. “Prima facie, we are with you,” a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and P B Varale said as it adjourned the hearing on pleas by accused Tasleem Ahmed and Khalid Saifi.
Additional solicitor general S V Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, sought the bench’s judgment to be referred to a larger bench owing to conflicting views of two other two-judge benches.
On Monday a two-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, granting bail to Kashmir resident Syed Iftikhar Andrabi – booked under UAPA in a case of narco-terror probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The court had in the case said that violation of a fundamental right, like the one to speedy trial, can be a ground for grant of bail even under a stringent law like the UAPA.
In Gulfisha Fatima vs State, an SC bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria, while granting bail to five accused in the Delhi riots case, had denied relief to accused Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, saying they stood on a “higher footing in the hierarchy of participation”.
