Supreme Court defers till January 31 hearing on Umar Khalid's bail plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred till January 31 the hearing on a bail plea filed by former JNU scholar and student activist Umar Khalid who is behind bars under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Delhi riots "larger conspiracy" case.

A Bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Ujjal Bhuyan adjourned the matter because the Bench was only available till lunch as Justice Trivedi had to hold other scheduled special sittings.

Khalid’s bail plea along with a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the UAPA will now be heard on Wednesday next week.

In an earlier hearing held on January 10, the top court had expressed reservations after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on Khalid’s behalf, had requested to defer the scheduled hearing.

“We will not grant any adjournment…The impression goes that the Court is not taking up the matter,” it had remarked.

Further, it had stressed that the matter requires hearing because Khalid is behind bars. However, after repeated persuasions made by Sibal and other senior advocates, the Supreme Court had acceded to the request for adjournment clarifying that it will not entertain any request for adjournment on the next date of listing.

Khalid has approached the Supreme Court against denial of bail by the Delhi High Court. A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar of the High Court had rejected Khalid's appeal seeking regular bail on October 18, 2022.

He had challenged the trial court’s order which had denied him bail in connection with the UAPA case. His alleged offensive speeches delivered at Amaravati during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens were the basis of allegations against him in the riots case.

JNU scholars and activists Khalid, and Sharjeel Imam are among the nearly dozen people involved in the alleged larger conspiracy case linked with the 2020 Delhi riots, as per the Delhi Police.

The riots broke out in the national Capital in February 2020 as clashes between the anti and pro-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters took a violent turn, in which more than 50 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured.