Delhi High Court special bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul to hear bail appeals in Delhi riots conspiracy case

A special bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar of the Delhi High Court said on Monday that it will hear the batch of bail appeals in the Delhi riots conspiracy case. .Last week, the judges had said that they will have to reconsider whether they can hear the case given the fact the they are sitting in as a special bench and there is time constraint. .However, when the matter was taken up today, Justice Mridul informed the counsel appearing for the parties, that the bench will hear the matter. Justice Mridul also said that the bench will need few days to arrange their rosters and then sit on a daily basis starting Friday. “At the outset we must let you know that we will hear the appeals but you will have to give us some time to sort our rosters. We would hear the appeals today and on Friday and then we would assemble in the post lunch session every day,” the bench said..Justices Mridul and Bhatnagar were sitting together and hearing criminal appeals when the Umar Khalid’s bail appeal came before them.Later, bail pleas of Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Mohammad Saleem Khan, Salim Malik and Shifa Ur Rehman also came to be listed before the bench. The bench is also seized of State’s appeal against bail granted to Ishrat Jahan..However, the two judges are not sitting on the bench together anymore after a change in roster. But they had assembled as a special bench to hear Umar Khalid’s appeal..Khalid’s bail appeal was rejected by the court last month.Since, the judges had to sit in special combination to hear the Delhi riots cases, the hearing before regular benches of which there are a part, were getting affected prompting the two judges to examine whether they should sit in special combination. However, the judges cleared the air today agreeing to hear the cases sitting in special bench. .The Court heard Senior Advocate Rebecca John for some time today and then listed the case for further consideration on Friday. Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad has been directed to place the electronic copy of the chargesheet on record.