Delhi HC adjourns Sharjeel Imam's bail plea in sedition case for May 4

The Delhi High Court on Monday adjourned, to May 4, the hearing in Jawaharlal Nehru University alumnus Sharjeel Imam's plea seeking bail in connection with a 2020 communal riots case involving allegations of sedition.

Imam has challenged a trial court's order dated January 24, 2022, denying him bail.

He has contended that the trial court "failed to recognise" that pursuant to the directions of the top court, the basis for dismissal of his earlier bail plea - the charge of sedition - no longer existed and therefore relief must be granted to him.

A division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Vikas Mahajan listed the matter for the hearing in May as the counsel for one of the parties was not available.

The court had earlier sought Delhi Police's stand on whether Imam's plea could be remanded back to the trial court for adjudication as its order does not mention the reason for rejecting his bail.

Since, on the directions of the apex court, Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been kept in abeyance, it will have to examine the lower court's order while it also keeps in mind the other sections applied against Imam, the court had said.

On May 11, 2022, the top court had stayed till further orders the registration of FIRs, probes, and coercive measures for the offence of sedition across the country by the Centre and the States until an appropriate forum of the government re-examines the colonial-era penal law.

The trial court had framed charges against Imam last year under different Sections of the IPC and Section 13 (Punishment for Unlawful Activities) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The court charged him with sedition, promoting enmity, imputations prejudicial to national integration, and statements conducing to public mischief.

Imam had 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 the rest of the North East from the country, according to the prosecution.