SC ‘VERY UNLIKELY’ TO CANCEL BAIL OF STUDENT ACTIVISTS HELD IN DELHI RIOTS CASES

NEW DELHI: Frowning upon “hypersensitivity in political matters”, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it’s “very unlikely” to send back to jail three student activists, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha, who were held in May 2020 for allegedly instigating the Delhi riots in February 2020.

The bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta made the observation while hearing appeals filed by the Delhi Police against the grant of bail to the three by the Delhi high court in June when it asked whether the police will confine the case to interpretations of certain provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) by the Delhi high court, or would also appeal the bail.

“We are here on both aspects. We want the bail orders to be set aside,” solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Delhi Police in the matter, told the court.

To this, the bench retorted: “Very unlikely...but you can try.” The court also recorded in its order that the Delhi Police wanted the bail orders to be quashed apart from other comments made by the high court on the interpretations of the UAPA Act. Delhi HC had interpreted the UAPA Act to hold that the law can be invoked only for offences limited to defence of India and for activities carried out during war.

The HC defined what constituted a “terrorist activity”, noting UAPA could apply only when activities led to widespread violence threatening the defence of the country.

During the proceeding, justice Kaul, speaking for the bench, further expressed his displeasure at repeated interruptions from Mehta and additional solicitor general Aman Lekhi, who also appeared for the police.

Meanwhile, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Siddharth Aggarwal, who were representing the student activists, asked for four weeks to put in their replies to the appeals filed by the police, along with the copy of the charge sheet in the case. The court gave them time and adjourned.

Over 750 FIRs were filed and many arrested for the riots that broke out in north-east Delhi in 2020, leaving 53 dead and several hundreds injured.