On every date we say please end: Delhi High Court on long arguments in Delhi Riots cases

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday expressed its exasperation with lengthy arguments in the 2020 Delhi Riots bail cases. .A Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur said,“Every date, we only say one thing - please end, please end, please end, and that’s what we can keep saying."The remark was in response to a submission by accused Gulfisha Fatima’s lawyer that her bail plea is pending before the Court for the last three years. Notably, this is a special bench which assembles to hear these cases because they were part-heard when Justices Chawla and Kaur shared the Division Bench. However, now they sit separately. Even earlier, the Court had expressed dissatisfaction with lengthy arguments in the case. .A total of eight bail applications filed by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Athar Khan, Meeran Haider and Khalid Saifi are pending before the Bench. .Today, the High Court was hearing arguments from Fatima's counsel, Advocate Sushil Bajaj. He told the Court that witness statements against her are self-serving and that they tried to buy their freedom by implicating Fatima. Bajaj also sought parity with Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, who are already on bail in the case. It was argued that the role ascribed to Fatima is far less than that of Kalita and Narwal. Furthermore, he stated that even though the prosecution claims that Fatima asked women protesters to gather sticks, red chilli powder and bottles, no such recovery was made by the police. The Court has now listed the case for further hearing on July 1.