Delhi High Court Grants Statutory Bail To Sharjeel Imam In Sedition Case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted statutory bail to Sharjeel Imam in a UAPA and sedition case relating to the alleged inflammatory speeches made by him in Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia area in the national capital against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

A division bench comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Manoj Jain allowed Imam's bail plea. He had challenged the trial court order denying him statutory bail in the case.

Imam had sought bail on the ground of having undergone one half of the maximum seven years punishment. He will however remain in jail in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case involving UAPA charges.

Advocates Talib Mustafa. Ahmad Ibrahim and Kartik Venu appeared for Imam. SPP Rajat Nair represented the Delhi Police.

Mustafa, representing Imam, submitted that Imam has already undergone four years and seven months of incarceration out of the seven years of maximum imprisonment.

However, Nair opposed the plea on the ground that Imam had not undergone half sentence. He said that Imam's case was squarely covered by the Explanation to Section 436A of CrPC and therefore, he was not entitled to any statutory bail.

Nair also said that the delayed period of pre-trial detention was solely attributable to Imam on whose instance the trial was stayed in 2022.

The court allowed the plea after taking note of various list of dates, including the date of framing of charges and examination of witnesses.

On February 17, the trial court dismissed his plea observing that his speeches and activities “mobilised the public” which disrupted the national capital and might be the main reason for the outbreak of the 2020 riots.

Imam was booked under FIR 22 of 2020 registered by Delhi Police's Special Branch. While the case was initially registered for the offence of sedition, Section 13 of UAPA was invoked later. He has been custody in the case since January 28, 2020.

“Although the applicant did not ask anybody to pick the weapons and kill the people, his speeches and activities mobilised the public which disrupted the city and might be the main reason in the outbreak of the riots. Further, through inflammatory speeches and social media, the applicant skillfully manipulated the real facts and incited the public in order to create havoc in the city,” the trial court had said.

The court had framed charges against Imam in the FIR in January last year. He has been charged for the offences under Section 124A (sedition), 153A(Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc.), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC along with Section 13 (Punishment for unlawful activities) of the UAPA.

In June last year, Imam had moved the Delhi High Court challenging proceedings against him in two different cases for the same speech delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia University in December 2019. The matter is pending adjudication.

Title: Sharjeel Imam v. State

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 648