New Delhi: A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur will hear student activist Gulfisha Fatima, Khalid Saifi and Umar Khalid’s bail plea in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case on December 6, 2024, news agency PTI reported.
The three have been accused under the draconian UAPA in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots. They sought bail on Monday on grounds of their prolonger incarceration.
Justices Chawla and Kaur were set to hear Khalid’s bail petition on October 7, but the bench failed to convene, LiveLaw had reported. The court master had then listed the case for November 25.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Girish Kathpalia had issued a notice to the Delhi Police on July 24 seeking their response on Khalid’s bail application. However, the police failed to file its response before the next hearing, set from a month from then, on August 29, LiveLaw had reported.
Bail pleas of other accused in the Delhi riots case, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Saleem Khan and Shifa Ur Rehman, listed before the same bench, were also to be heard on August 29.
Previously, Justice Amit Sharma of the Delhi high court had recused himself from the Delhi riots case ahead of Khalid’s bail hearing on July 22). A bench of Justices Sharma and Prathiba M. Singh were set to hear the case that day.
Khalid completed four years days in jail on September 14 this year.
He was earlier denied bail by a lower court on May 28, 2024. He had moved the trial court after his bail application was delayed 14 times in the Supreme Court over the last four years. Khalid’s lawyer, Kapil Sibal, had withdrawn the petition from the top court in February, 2024 to “try their luck in a lower court”.
Timeline prepared by Elisha Vermani.
