Delhi HC should consider expediting Sharjeel’s trial: Supreme Court
#News Bureau October 25,2024
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Delhi High Court to consider expediting the hearing on Sharjeel Imam’s bail plea. Student activist Sharjeel Imam is an accused in the larger conspiracy case of the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. He has been booked under the UAPA.
The court was hearing Sharjeel’s writ petition seeking bail in the case. However, the Supreme Court bench refused to consider the writ filed directly before it but accepted the request to ask the High Court to consider his request to expedite the hearing. By the way, the High Court will hear his plea next on November 25, it is already fixed.
Sharjeel Imam’s bail plea was to be heard on 7 October, but it was postponed. These cases were listed before a new bench of Justice Naveen Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur on 7 October. But due to Justice Naveen Chawla not sitting in the court, the hearing was postponed till 25 November. This is not the first time. Earlier also this case has been postponed due to transfer of judges, sometimes due to unavailability of judges, sometimes due to absence of government lawyer. The hearing has been postponed four times in this manner.
Anyway, now a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court. The bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said that Sharjeel Imam will be free to request the High Court to hear the bail plea as soon as possible on the next date and it is expected that the High Court will consider that request.
Earlier, when the Supreme Court bench started the hearing, it tried to reject Sharjeel’s petition at the very beginning. According to a report by The Indian Express, however, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Sharjeel, said that he is not pressing for bail, but wants the High Court to consider it without any delay. He said that the matter is pending in the High Court since April 202
The Supreme Court bench pointed out that eight FIRs have been lodged against Sharjeel, but Dave said this application is only related to the larger conspiracy behind the riots case.
Sharjeel had approached the High Court after the lower court refused to grant him bail. He and several others were accused of being the alleged ‘masterminds’ of the riots that broke out in north-east Delhi in February 2020. A case was registered against him under the provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The riots broke out in the city during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). More than 50 people were killed and hundreds were injured in this.
On May 29 this year, the Delhi High Court granted him statutory bail in the sedition case registered against him for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia area during the anti-CAA protests.
