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The Supreme Court connected Friday (May 22, 2026) granted six months of interim bail to 2 accused successful the 2020 Delhi riots lawsuit portion referring to a larger Bench the question of whether prolonged incarceration and hold successful proceedings tin override the stringent bail curbs under anti-terror laws specified arsenic the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA). The tribunal said the notation was indispensable to guarantee “parity, consistency and organization fidelity” successful the exertion of binding precedents by coordinate Benches.
The notation was made by a Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and P. B. Varale during the proceeding of bail pleas filed by 2020 Delhi riots accused Abdul Khalid Saifi and Tasleem Ahmad, challenging a September 2, 2025, bid of the Delhi High Court denying them bail.
“Where a coordinate Bench entertains reservations astir the reasoning of an earlier coordinate Bench, peculiarly connected the exertion of a binding three-judge Bench decision, the due people is good settled. The substance indispensable ordinarily beryllium placed earlier the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for the constitution of an due Bench. A coordinate Bench cannot, by beardown observations, efficaciously unsettle the ratio of an earlier coordinate Bench portion continuing to beryllium successful adjacent strength,” the Bench observed.
The notation came successful effect to the Delhi Police’s contention that a May 18 judgement delivered by a coordinate Bench – which had expressed “serious reservations” astir the Justice Kumar-headed Bench’s January ruling refusing bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam successful the Delhi riots “larger conspiracy” lawsuit – had proceeded connected a “blanket generalisation” of Supreme Court precedents.
‘Facts of each case’
During the proceedings, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, told the Bench that the question of bail indispensable crook connected the facts and circumstances of each case.
“Latest (May 18) judgement says you don’t person to spot the role, you don’t person to spot the quality of the crime. So determination is nary categorisation…This can’t beryllium done. This can’t beryllium however it has to beryllium applied. It has to beryllium applied to the facts of each case. That’s what your Lordships person precisely done”, Mr. Raju submitted.
He contended that courts indispensable onslaught a equilibrium betwixt the “interests of nine and victims” and the “rights of the accused” portion considering bail nether panic statutes.
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“If you instrumentality the lawsuit of Ajmal Kasab, determination are a ample fig of witnesses. Will you assistance him bail, fixed that helium has been successful jailhouse for 7 oregon 8 years? It can’t beryllium done… Suppose if Hafiz Sayeed is brought from Pakistan and tried, and helium is successful jailhouse for 5 years due to the fact that determination are a ample fig of witnesses (because) you person to cod grounds from abroad, volition you merchandise him connected bail (saying) no, nary 5 years (has passed)?” Mr. Raju asked.
‘Counter-observations’
The May 18 judgment, delivered by Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, had underlined that the January 5 verdict failed to correctly use the binding principles laid down by a larger three-judge Bench successful Union of India v. K.A. Najeeb (2021) case, which held that prolonged incarceration and hold successful proceedings tin “melt down” the stringent bail embargo nether Section 43D(5) of the UAPA. The proviso restrains courts from extending bail wherever determination are tenable grounds to judge that the charges against the accused are “prima facie true”.
The Justice Kumar-led Bench connected Friday (May 22, 2026) said it did not privation to analyse “the correctness of the observations” made by the coordinate Bench since “counter-observations” would beryllium dehors judicial discipline. However, it stressed that the “discipline of precedent” does not licence a coordinate Bench to explicit “reservations of a cardinal character” connected the alleged misapplication of a larger Bench ruling without the substance archetypal being placed earlier a Bench of due spot to resoluteness the “perceived conflict”.
The tribunal further observed that the reliance placed by the accused connected its January ruling granting conditional bail to pupil activistic Gulfisha Fatima and 4 different co-accused, portion denying alleviation to Mr. Khalid and Mr. Imam aft distinguishing their alleged roles, was “not without significance”.
“If [the ruling] had proceeded connected the ground that Section 43D (5) eclipses Article 21, oregon that prolonged incarceration has nary law bearing successful UAPA prosecutions, it could hardly person been invoked by accused persons seeking enlargement connected bail. The precise reliance placed upon it demonstrates that the said determination cannot beryllium placed successful a rigid oregon one-sided frame,” the Bench observed.
The Bench cautioned that an “unqualified reading” of the proposition that specified transition of clip whitethorn compel bail successful each UAPA lawsuit could person “serious consequences”. Such an approach, it said, would permission courts with small country to analyse factors specified arsenic the quality of the allegations, the centrality of the accused’s role, extortion of witnesses, the hazard of intimidation, imaginable reactivation of networks, whether delays were attributable to the accused, and broader concerns of nationalist bid and nationalist security.
At the aforesaid time, the Bench acknowledged that an “equally unqualified insistence” connected Section 43D(5), without respect to prolonged incarceration, would imperil the warrant of idiosyncratic liberty nether Article 21 of the Constitution. This “perceived conflict”, it said, warranted information by a larger Bench.
The court, however, clarified that nary of its observations was intended to “brittle down, dilute, work narrowly oregon detract from the authority” of the Najeeb precedent. “On the contrary, the contiguous notation is necessitated due to the fact that Najeeb deserves exertion with parity, consistency and organization fidelity which a binding three-judge Bench commands,” it observed.
Accordingly, the Bench directed the Registry to spot the papers earlier Chief Justice Surya Kant for the constitution of an due Bench for an “authoritative resolution”.
Interim bail
The court, however, acknowledged that the accused “cannot beryllium made to suffer” simply due to the fact that an important question of instrumentality had arisen for authoritative settlement. Taking enactment of the information that the accused had undergone “substantial incarceration” and that the proceedings was “not apt to reason immediately”, the Bench proceeded to assistance them interim bail.
“Without expressing immoderate sentiment connected merits, and taxable to stringent safeguards, we are inclined to assistance interim bail to the appellants pending further orders”, the Bench said.
The Bench directed the accused to furnish idiosyncratic bonds of ₹2 lakh each on with 2 section sureties to the restitution of the proceedings tribunal and ordered them to surrender their passports earlier the proceedings court. They were besides instructed not to permission the nationalist superior without anterior support of the proceedings tribunal oregon alteration their spot of residence without informing the investigating officer.
“The appellants shall not marque immoderate nationalist statement, including done print, physics oregon societal media, touching upon the merits of the case, the evidence, the witnesses oregon the pending trial,” the Bench said, adding that immoderate usurpation of the conditions would render them liable to cancellation of bail.
