Supreme Court Adjourns Umar Khalid's Bail Hearing After Joint Request By Both Sides; Lists On January 10, 2024

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of former JNU scholar Umar Khalid's bail application in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case on Wednesday (November 29), based on a joint request by both sides.

As Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju were unavailable on this day, both the petitioner and the Delhi Police requested an adjournment. Although the Court initially rescheduled the matter to December 6, the bench was informed that Sibal would not be available on that day as well due to his appearance in a Constitution Bench hearing. Accordingly, the bench, comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma, postponed the matter to January 10, 2024.

The bench will also consider a set of writ petitions which have been filed challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 along with Khalid's bail petition. Khalid has also filed a separate writ petition challenging UAPA provisions.

Today, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the Foundation of Media Professionals, requested that the petitions challenging the UAPA provisions be referred to a three-judge bench. To support his request, Datar pointed out that the plea to reconsider the constitutionality of provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is before a three-judge bench. Since the bail provision in PMLA, which is Section 45, is identically worded as Section 43D(5) of the UAPA, Datar urged that the matter be heard by a 3-judge bench.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing in a petition challenging the UAPA FIR registered by the Tripura police over a report on riots, also raised a similar request. He pointed out that the petition was being heard by a bench led by the Chief Justice of India and requested Justice Trivedi to place the matter before the CJI on the administrative side for clarity.

However, Justice Trivedi refused to de-tag the writ petitions or refer the matters to another bench.

"These matters have been listed before us. We are bound to hear," Justice Trivedi said.

Khalid, who was arrested in September 2020 and has been behind the bars since then in a UAPA case for alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots, has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's judgment denying him bail.

Since the Supreme Court issued notice on his petition in May this year, the hearing of Khalid's bail plea has been adjourned eight times – once on July 12 after the Delhi police sought more time to file a counter-affidavit, on July 24 after a letter of adjournment was circulated by Khalid's counsel, on August 9 after Justice PK Mishra recused himself, on August 18, when the matter was listed on a miscellaneous day, on September 5 at the behest of the petitioner, on September 12 after the court granted leave, on October 12 owing to a paucity of time and on October 31.

Notice on Khalid's petition was issued by a bench comprising Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli. Later, the matter was assigned to a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela Trivedi, after the recusal of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra. The matter was further shifted to the present bench.

Background

Khalid, a former scholar and researcher from Jawaharlal Nehru University, is one of the accused in the larger conspiracy case relating to the 2020 North-East Delhi communal riots case. He has been accused along with 59 others, including Pinjra Tod members Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, and student activist Gulfisha Fatima.