Delhi: A former JNU student activist Umar Khalid has been refused an interim bail, granted him by a court in Delhi, to attend the post death ceremonies of his uncle and care for his ailing mother.
This order was issued by Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma Court in Delhi. Khalid is now lodged in jail in connection with the alleged larger conspiracy case in connection to the riots in the northeast Delhi in 2020.
Khalid and a couple of others were booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), as well as under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. Investigating agencies have blamed them for being one among the “masterminds” behind the communal violence that broke out in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). There were 53 dead and hundreds injured in the rioting.
The highest court of India made some important observations regarding the bail jurisprudence under the UAPA in the context of a separate narco-terror case only a day after the latest rejection.
Even in anti-terror cases, bail is the rule and jail the exception,” a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said. The judges were also believed to have voiced their dismay at a January 2026 previous Supreme Court order granting bail to Umar Khalid and activist Sharjeel Imam in the Delhi riots conspiracy case.
The Supreme Court noted that such extended detention and delay in trial gives an occassion for bail even in the presence of stringent conditions in Section 43D(5) of the UAPA, in reference to the guiding principles enunciated in the KA Najeeb case.
Though the Supreme Court made these observations, the Delhi trial court did not provide any interim relief in the present case.