Senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Friday pointed out that Supreme Court rulings stressing expeditious hearing of bail applications had been violated in activist Umar Khalid’s case, where Delhi High Court took 407 days to decide on his plea.
Sibal’s observation comes three days after the high court rejected Khalid’s second bail plea in a larger conspiracy case related to the 2020 Delhi riots.
The Rajya Sabha member said the order would be challenged in the Supreme Court as Khalid’s right to liberty had been denied.
“The Supreme Court has said in many rulings that bail applications should be heard as soon as possible,” Sibal told a media conference. He said Khalid had been languishing in jail for four years, 11 months and 15 days.
Sibal’s media conference came against the backdrop of former Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud’s reported remark that Khalid’s counsel had sought at least seven adjournments.
Without naming the former CJI, Sibal said only two adjournments were sought by the defence when the matter was before the Supreme Court — one in July 2023 and another in September 2023.
“The bail plea remained pending for 272 days in the Supreme Court. First time, it was heard on May 18, 2023,” Sibal said, adding that the plea was withdrawn in February 2024.
Later, Khalid approached the high court for the second time.
“If the court does not give a verdict for years, are lawyers to be blamed for it? This is the state of affairs of the court. If you don’t want to give bail, reject the plea. Why do you have to conduct 20-30 hearings?” Sibal said.
“There have been two appeals — filed in 2022 and 2024 — that were rejected by the high court. The first appeal that came before the high court had 28 hearings in 180 days. In 2024, an appeal was filed and it took 407 days to be rejected,” Sibal said.
Questioning the stringent terror charges levelled against Khalid under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Sibal cited several cases in which the UAPA accused has been granted bail.
“I want to say with confidence that when they (Khalid and the other accused in the case) are put on trial, almost all of them will be discharged,” Sibal said.