Umar Khalid's Bail Plea: A Timeline Of Adjournments, Recusals And Rejections In Courts Over 3 Years

Umar Khalid has spent more than three years in jail. He was first arrested on September 14, 2020. In past three years, Umar Khalid's bail petitions have seen several adjournments, rejections as well as recusals

The adjournment came after the new bench that was supposed to hear the plea did not sit today

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has once again adjourned hearing bail petition moved by former JNU student Umar Khalid in connection with the larger conspiracy UAPA case related to the North-East Delhi riots of 2020 on Monday (October 7, 2024). The adjournment came after the new bench that was supposed to hear the plea did not sit today. The court master gave a date of November 25 for next hearing in the matter. The matter was listed in front of this new bench as a Delhi High Court judge from the previous bench had recused himself from hearing the case.

Khalid has spent more than three years in jail. He was first arrested on September 14, 2020. Over the past three years, Umar Khalid's bail petitions have seen several adjournments, rejections as well as recusal from judges from Supreme Court as well as Delhi High Court.

Here's a timeline of adjournments, recusals and rejection of Umar Khalid's bail plea across courts.

2022

In March 2022, a Delhi Sessions Court denied bail to Umar Khalid after hearing his case for nearly 8 months. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said a preliminary assessment of the case showed a premeditated conspiracy surrounding the 2020 Delhi Riots that Khalid was involved in.

In April 2022, Khalid appealed against the Session court’s order before the Delhi High Court.

On October 18, 2022, a Delhi High Court bench comprising Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnesh Bhatnagar rejected Khalid’s plea for bail. The bench observed that the prosecution’s case and the chargesheet made out a prima facie case against Khalid. Saying that Khalid was in constant touch with other co-accused and Khalid's act prima facie qualified as “terrorist act” under the UAPA, the high court denied him bail.

In November 2022, Umar Khalid filed a petition in Delhi's Karkardooma court seeking a two-week interim bail, reportedly, to attend his sister’s marriage ceremony.

In December 2022, the Delhi Karkardooma Court acquitted Umar Khalid in connection to the ‘stone pelting’ case related to the February 2020 riots. Khalid was accused of involvement in acts of rioting, vandalism and arson at a parking lot in northeast Delhi. However, he remained in detention in connection with the Delhi riots' larger conspiracy case.

On December 12, Khalid was granted a week-long reprieve on bail under specific conditions which include a gag order. Khalid was barred from talking to the media or giving interviews. He was only allowed to interact with family members, relatives and friends. He was back in jail on December 31, 2022.

2023

In April 2023, Khalid filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Delhi High Court order denying him bail in the Supreme Court.

In May 2023, a divisional bench comprising Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli heard Khalid's petition and issued a notice to the Delhi government seeking a response within six weeks.

In July 2023, the Delhi police sought more time to prepare their arguments citing the substantial volume of the chargesheet. The bench rescheduled Khalid’s bail plea hearing on July 24, 2023. However, on July 24, the bench adjourned the matter by a week due to a letter circulated by Khalid’s lawyer seeking additional time.

In August 2023, the matter was listed before a bench comprising Justices AS Bopanna and PK Mishra. However, Justice Mishra recused himself from hearing the petition. On August 17, Khalid’s bail plea was dropped from the cause list as it was listed before a bench comprising Justice PK Mishra again.

In September 2023, Khalid’s bail application was put before a bench comprising Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Dipankar Datta. The bail hearing was adjourned on September 5 due to the unavailability of senior advocate Kapil Sibal who was representing Khalid. Sibal was at that time arguing before the constitutional bench hearing petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370. On September 12, the case was adjourned again and listed for hearings after one month.

In October 2023, a division bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela Trivedi adjourned till November 1 Khalid’s hearing due to “paucity of time”. In this hearing, Sibal had said in the court that he just needed 20 minutes to prove that there was no case against Khalid. 

On October 31, the same bench tagged Khalid’s bail petition and writ petition against UAPA with other matters challenging the constitutionality of provisions in the UAPA. The other petitions include cases related to Tripura Violence. Lawyers and journalists who undertook a fact-finding mission in the Tripura violence of October 2021 were named in FIRs and are facing charges under UAPA.

Since Khalid's lawyer Sibal was again unavailable due to a Constitution Bench case, the next date of hearing was scheduled for November 22, 2023.

However, due to the unavailability of Additional Solicitor General SV Raju and Sibal, the hearing was once again adjourned, till January 2024. 

 2024

On January 10, 2024 a bench comprising Justices Bela Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal adjourned the matter again on Khalid's lawyer Kapil Sibal's request. ASG Raju, representing the Centre, was absent again and his representative sought an additional week to respond. The Bench initially said it would hear the case on January 17. However, Sibal, who is attending another Constitutional Bench hearing (on the Aligarh Muslim University matter) requested the hearing to be fixed for January 24, instead.

February 14, 2024

Umar Khalid withdrew his bail petition from the Supreme Court on February 14, after facing several adjournments and a recusal from a top court judge as well. He  then moved to trial court after withdrawing a plea from the Supreme Court after facing several adjournments and a recusal from a top court judge as well. Khalid's bail was adjourned for at least 13 times before it was withdrawn from the Supreme Court.

Umar Khalid withdrew his bail application from the Supreme Court due to "changed circumstances". A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Muthal allowed his withdrawal petition.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Khalid told the top court that the application is being withdrawn in view of "change in circumstances" and to seek bail afresh before the trial court.

May, 2024

Delhi Court rejected former JNU scholar and activist Umar Khalid's regular bail plea for a second time in connection with the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Umar Khalid approached Delhi High Court after his bail plea was rejected by the trial court.

July 2024

In July 2024, Umar Khalid's bail matter was listed for hearing before a division bench of Delhi High Court comprising Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Amit Sharma. After Justice Sharma recused himself from hearing the matter, the case was sent for re-listing on different dates in front of a different bench.

Earlier, Justice Sharma recused from hearing bail petitions of co-accused in the same case, as he appeared for various UAPA cases for NIA as Special Public Prosecutor when he served as a lawyer.

October 7, 2024

The matters were listed for fresh hearing before a new bench composed of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur, after Justice Amit Sharma of Delhi High Court had recused from hearing the case.

However, the hearing was adjourned as the bench did not sit today. The court master gave a date of November 25 for the next hearing in the matter. Now, all the pleas will likely be taken up on November 25.

Charges against Umar Khalid

Khalid has been charged under the IPC, 1967 Arms Act, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Rioting (Sec. 147 IPC),
Rioting with a deadly weapon (Sec. 148 IPC),
Murder (Sec. 302 IPC),
Attempted murder (Sec. 307 IPC),
Sedition (Sec. 124A IPC), for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony (Sec. 153A IPC),
Unlawful activities (Sec. 13 UAPA),
Terrorist acts (Sec. 16 UAPA),
Raising funds for terrorist acts (Sec. 17 UAPA),
Conspiracy (Sec. 18 UAPA)