Engineer Rashid withdraws plea for prompt disposal of bail plea from Delhi High Court after SC clarification

Baramulla Member of Parliament (MP) and terror-funding accused Abdul Rashid Sheikh, known as Engineer Rashid, today withdrew a plea he had recently filed before the Delhi High Court to question delays in deciding on his bail plea on account of confusion over which trial court should hear the bail plea. .Rashid withdrew the plea after the Supreme Court recently clarified that the court dealing with cases investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) can hear his plea. Earlier, there had been some confusion over whether the appropriate court to hear Rashid's plea was a court designated to hear cases concerning MPs and MLAs/ legislators. .Aggrieved by delays arising on account of this confusion, Rashid had moved the Delhi High Court with a plea for the quick resolution of his bail plea..Justice Vikas Mahajan on Monday, allowed Rashid to withdraw this plea in light of the clarification issued by the Supreme Court that the NIA Court can continue with the trial against him. "The petition is dismissed as withdrawn," the Court said today. The Court further requested the trial court to dispose of Rashid’s bail application as expeditiously as possible. .Rashid is currently in jail as an accused in a terror funding case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He was arrested in 2019.He had moved an NIA court for bail. The NIA court heard the plea and reserved orders but released the matter after stating that only a designated MP/MLA Court can hear the MP's case.This was after Rashid won the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat by defeating current Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by over two lakh votes. This led to confusion as to which court would be entitled to hear his bail plea - the NIA court or the MP/MLA court. Rashid told the High Court that with the NIA court refusing to hear his bail plea (as it was not a designated MP/MLA court), he was left remediless..The Registrar of the Delhi High Court, therefore, sought clarification on this aspect from the Supreme Court. On February 10, the Supreme Court clarified that the Special NIA Court can continue dealing with Rashid's plea. Representing the High Court's Registrar, Advocate Kanhaiya Singhal submitted that after this clarification, the Delhi High Court also passed an order on February 17 on the administrative side which instructed that Rashid's matter should be tried by the Additional Sessions Judge of Patiala House court.In view of these developments, Rashid opted to withdraw his plea. The plea was, accordingly, dismissed as withdrawn. .Senior Advocate N Hariharan appeared for Rashid. Special Public Prosecutor Akshai Malik appeared for the NIA..[Live coverage]