2020 Delhi riots case: Supreme Court adjourns bail plea of Umar Khalid, others till September 22

The petitions were last listed before a bench of Justices Arvind Kumar and N V Anjaria on September 12, but the court pointed out that the supplementary list by which the case was listed reached it very late, at 2.30 am, indicating that it did not have enough time to go through the files.

The Delhi High Court had rejected the bail pleas of nine accused in the case, including Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima and Meeran Haider, saying the riots, which killed 29 people and injured hundreds, were not a “regular protest” but a “premeditated, well-orchestrated conspiracy”.

The others who were denied relief are Athar Khan, Abdul Khalid Saifi, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, and Shadab Ahmed.

“….in the conspectus of the allegations levelled, it emerges that the role of the appellants – Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid – is prima facie grave in the entire conspiracy, having delivered inflammatory speeches on communal lines to instigate a mass mobilisation of members of the Muslim community,” the Delhi High Court said.

Drawing a line on the limits of right to protest vis-a-vis the right to freedom of speech, the high court said, “If the exercise of an unfettered right to protest were permitted, it would damage the constitutional framework and impinge upon the law-and-order situation in the country.”

“Any conspiratorial violence under the garb of protests or demonstrations by the citizens cannot be permitted. Such actions must be regulated and checked by the state machinery, as they do not fall within the ambit of the freedom of speech, expression, and association,” it added.

Three other accused—Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha—were granted bail by the Delhi High Court in June 2021, while a fourth accused and former Congress councillor, Ishrat Jahan, was granted bail in March 2022.