2020 Delhi Riots: SC to Hear Bail Pleas of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam & Others on Sept 19

The Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice N.V. Anjaria took up the matter briefly.

The Court clarified at the outset that except for passover matters, no other hearings would be taken up as the Bench was scheduled to rise shortly.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Gulfisha Fatima, urged the Bench to fix the matter for the earliest possible date. “My lords may take it up on the shortest day possible,” he submitted.

Justice Aravind Kumar inquired whether the case was part of the regular list or the supplementary list, noting that the supplementary list had been circulated only at 2:30 am the previous night.

Singhvi clarified that it was a fresh matter and expressed no objection to its listing the following Friday or any other early date convenient to the Court.

Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Siddharth Agarwal, also representing other accused in the case, informed the Bench that there were four connected matters, all arising from the same judgment of the Delhi High Court that had earlier denied bail.

Taking note of the submissions, the Court directed that the batch of petitions be listed for hearing on September 19.

Notably on July 9, 2025, the High Court had reserved its verdict after briefly hearing submissions from the prosecution as well as from counsels representing the accused persons, namely Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Athar Khan, Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, and Shadab.

Imam’s bail plea, had been rejected by ASJ Sameer Bajpai on February 11, 2022, observing that his speeches were intended to create “public disorder” and “incitement to violence” while also appearing to challenge the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India. The Supreme Court had more recently refused to entertain Imam’s Article 32 petition, noting that he could not have approached the top court while his bail plea was pending before the High Court.

Previously, the Supreme Court had also refused to entertain an Article 32 petition filed by Fatima who had submitted before Court that she had been in jail for 4 years while her bail application has been pending for last 2 and a half years. As per the ASJ Amitabh Rawat's order of March 17, 2022 whereby it had rejected Gulfisha’s bail, Court had found that Gulfisha was present in North East Delhi at the time of the riots and as per witness statements, she was the one who started the blockade and prompted an attack on police personnel and others with weapons like dande, Lal-mirch powder and others in Jafrabad area which had a "cascading effect leading to riots". As per the trial court's order, Gulfisha was also present at a midnight secret meeting on 16/17.02.2020 at Chand Bagh for chakka­jam. She was also involved in the incident of 22.02.2020 at Jafrabad Metro Station.

Details of Arrest and Charges against each of the accused: