Delhi Riots: Supreme Court dismisses appeal by Delhi Police against bail to Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal by the Delhi Police challenging an order of the Delhi High Court granting bail to Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal in a Delhi Riots case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) [State of NCT of Delhi vs Devangana Kalita]..A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also reiterated that the High Court's order shall not be treated as precedent primarily because of elaborate discussion on merits."The impugned order is an extremely elaborate order of bail interpreting various provisions of the UAPA Act...The idea [of the interim order] was to protect the State against use of the judgment on enunciation of law qua interpretation of the provisions of the UAPA Act in a bail matter...We make it clear that thus we have not gone into the legal position regarding statutory interpretation one way or the other", the bench added. The Court also rejected the Delhi Police request for adjournment."No, no (adjournment). Not every time. Today is a good day you argue. It is our indulgence earlier that has created this. Earlier Supreme Court did not grant such requests. Do not interrupt proceedings now," the bench said.It initially recorded the same in its order while rejecting the plea, but the final order does not reflect the same."We note that once again for the nth time a request for adjournment was made. Nothing survives in the matter really and so we are not willing to accommodate," the bench had said.The Court further remarked that bail hearings should not be prolonged and dismissed the appeal reasoning that nothing survived. .The case pertained to the Delhi Police probe into the alleged conspiracy by the accused that led to the riots in the capital’s North-East area in February 2020..Kalita, Narwal and Tanha were arrested in May 2020 and were in custody for almost a year, before the Delhi High Court granted them bail on June 15, 2021.While granting bail to the trio, the High Court had stated that that the State, in its anxiety to suppress dissent, blurred the line between the constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity. .The High Court had held that prima facie, no offence under Sections 15, 17 or 18 UAPA was made-out on the basis of the material on record in the present case against the three.The High Court underscored that right to protest peacefully without arms is a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(b) of the Constitution and has not been outlawed yet.The Supreme Court had in June 2021 issued notice in the Delhi Police's appeal against the said Delhi High Court order.The top court ruled that the order under challenge cannot be treated as a precedent for other accused under the Act to claim bail..The Delhi Police in its appeal contended that the High Court's findings were without any foundation and based more on the social media narrative than the evidence gathered and elaborated in the chargesheet.It was submitted that the High Court did not advert to or analyse the cogent evidence on record of the case, and had applied irrelevant considerations while granting bail to the accused..[Read our live-coverage of the hearing below].[Read order]