The
Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Delhi Police for not filing its reply to
the bail pleas of student leaders Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima
and three others in the 2020 Delhi riots case, according to a report by
Bar and Bench.
Noting
that the top court had made it clear the matter would be decided on Monday, a
Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria said the police had already been
given enough time to respond. “In bail matters, there is no question of filing
replies. We gave sufficient time,” the SC Bench told Additional Solicitor
General (ASG) SV Raju, when he requested two more weeks to file the response.
The
judges asked Raju to be ready to argue the case “tomorrow or the day after,”
but he continued to seek more time. Noting that the accused have already spent
five years in jail without trial, the Supreme Court fixed the next hearing for
Friday.
Senior
lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the accused,
opposed the Delhi government’s request for more time. When the case itself is
about delay, there can be no more delay, Singhvi argued.
The student leaders challenged the Delhi High
Court’s September 2 order, which denied them bail. The Supreme Court had issued
notice to the Delhi Police on September 22 in the matter.
The Northeast Delhi riots took place in February
2020, during protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The violence
left 53 people dead and hundreds injured.
According
to the Delhi Police, Khalid, Imam, and others were part of a larger conspiracy
to incite riots. They were charged under several sections of the Indian Penal
Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Khalid
was arrested in September 2020 and has remained in jail since. His first bail
plea was rejected by the trial court in March 2022, and his appeal was denied
by the Delhi High Court in October 2022.