Delhi High Court to hear bail pleas of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam together on August 27

The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the response of the Delhi Police on plea filed by former JNU scholar Umar Khalid seeking bail in the Delhi Riots conspiracy case.

A Bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan issued notice to Delhi Police and posted the case for hearing on August 27 along with the bail plea filed by co-accused Sharjeel Imam.

The Court also issued notice on the plea by Khalid seeking interim bail till the time the Supreme Court decides the question about whether Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) applies against the strict statutory bar on bail under Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

A trial court rejected his bail plea on July 4 prompting him to approach the High Court.

In its order, the trial court observed that it was bound by the Supreme Court's earlier order of January 2026 rejecting Khalid's and Sharjeel Imam's bail pleas earlier this year.

It further clarified that the Supreme Court's order had laid down specific conditions governing when they could seek bail again, leaving the trial court with no scope to entertain the present applications.

He had filed bail plea earlier too on two occasions but all of the same were rejected right up to the Supreme Court.

The same was noted by the High Court in its order today.

"This is appeal challenging July 4 order by which the third bail application of the appellant has been rejected by the trial court. Trideep Pais submits that the appellant is also seeking interim bail in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in Tasleem Ahmed. The appeal of the co-accused in this very order, Sharjeel Imam, is listed on August 27. Considering the overlapping nature of the two matters, issue notice. Counsel to appear physically for arguments," the Court said in its order.

The Delhi riots case concerns the communal rioting that happened in North-East Delhi in 2020 over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and led to death of more than 50 people besides injuring hundreds. Several persons were arrested on allegations that they conspired to trigger the riots.

The present case pertains to allegations that Khalid had hatched a larger conspiracy to cause multiple riots. The FIR in this case was registered by a Special Cell of the Delhi Police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Khalid was arrested in September 2020 and charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly as well as several other offences under UAPA.

He has been in jail since then.

This is the third round of bail plea Khalid has moved.

In the second round of bail plea moved by seven accused, the Supreme Court had in January this year granted bail to five other co-accused but denied relief to Khalid and another accused Sharjeel Imam.

However, another Bench of the Supreme Court in a different case doubted the correctness of the Umar Khalid verdict.

That Bench opined that bail should be the rule and jail the exception even in UAPA cases.

It also said that the Umar Khalid bail denial order appeared to be in conflict with the principles laid down in an earlier judgment in KA Najeeb case in which it was held that prolonged delays in trial was a ground to grant bail in UAPA cases regardless of stringent tests for bail in UAPA cases.

The legal issue surrounding the issue was consequently referred to a larger bench of the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, these observations prompted Khalid to file the present plea - the third time he is seeking bail.

After the trial court rejected his plea on July 4, he has now approached the High Court.

As per his plea, despite the passage of more than 6 months since the Supreme Court’s judgment denying them bail, there has been no meaningful progress in the trial proceedings, with arguments on charge still remaining incomplete.

When the matter was taken up Senior Advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid pointed out that this is Khalid's third round of bail pleas.

"Let me cut short the matter. There are matters already pending before this court. They are coming up for hearing on August 27, let this be tagged with the other matters," said Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said.

"Unlike them, I have filed interim bail application. Notice may go on that as well," said Pais.

The Court then issued notice to Delhi Police and posted the case for further hearing on August 27.

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