Delhi HC to hear bail pleas by Sharjeel Imam on January 30
As per the prosecution, Imam allegedly made speeches at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13, 2019 and at the Aligarh Muslim University on December 16, 2019, where he threatened to cut off Assam and other states in the Northeast from the rest of India.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday said that on January 30, it will hear two separate pleas by Jawaharlal Nehru student Sharjeel Imam, seeking regular bail and interim bail in connection with a February 2020 riots case involving allegations of sedition.
A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh, while hearing Imam’s petition for grant of interim bail pursuant to a Supreme Court direction, keeping in abeyance section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, observed that the pleas pertained to the same first information report (FIR), and same issues cannot be agitated multiple times.
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“Two of your appeals (against denial of regular bail and interim bail by trial court) are pending for the same FIR. We will hear them together; you can’t agitate the same issue more than once. It can’t be heard like this,” the court said.
As per the prosecution, Imam allegedly made speeches at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13, 2019 and at the Aligarh Muslim University on December 16, 2019, where he threatened to cut off Assam and other states in the Northeast from the rest of India.
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The counsel for Imam informed the court that his plea for regular bail was coming up for hearing in April and he has sought interim release until the top court decides the constitutional validity of offence of sedition. He stressed the point that Imam has been in custody for three years now.
On May 11, 2022, the Supreme Court stayed till further orders the registration of FIRs, probes, and coercive measures for the offence of sedition across the country until an appropriate forum of the government re-examines the colonial-era penal law.
The high court observed that the Supreme Court has not ordered the release of those facing sedition charges and, in the present case, Imam has been charged with offences other than sedition.
“The end result of both (pleas) is the same. You can’t have it both ways. We have two bail applications before us today. We can’t hear you today and then later (again). We will hear you together. Nowhere has the Supreme Court said that you have to be enlarged on bail,” the court said.
Acknowledging that the matter pertained to personal liberty of the accused, the court advanced the date of hearing of the regular bail plea from April to January 30, when it will also hear the plea seeking interim bail.
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