New Delhi: The Delhi High Court is once again set to hear afresh the bail pleas of the four accused in the 2020 Dehi riots case.
This will be the third time in two years that the case will be heard, despite the fact that previously the lawyers of the four accused – Abdul Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima, Md Saleem Khan and Shifa Ur Rehman – have fully argued their cases before two different benches, reported The Indian Express.
But since the presiding judges in both these benches were appointed the Chief Justice of other high courts, the verdict couldn’t be pronounced.
Suresh Kumar Kait, the presiding judge of the latest bench that was hearing the case, was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday (September 25), which meant that the case will again be heard before a new bench.
“My client was arrested in March 2020 and the court has neither framed charges against him nor commenced trial in the case. His bail plea was first filed in the HC in May 2022, and we have to now argue it for a third time all over again. This chronology itself is unconscionable. The right to a speedy trial and the right to be granted bail are constitutional rights,” said senior advocate Rebecca John, who appears for Saifi.
