Former JNU student Umar Khalid. (Express File Photo/Nirmal Harindran)The Delhi High Court Friday adjourned student activist Umar Khalid’s bail plea in the conspiracy case related to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots to May 6, saying that the challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code — one of the provisions invoked against him — is pending before the Supreme Court and listed for hearing on May 5.
“124A is under challenge before the Supreme Court and is coming up for hearing on 5th of May. The findings on the 124A will have bearing on these cases as well,” the court stated.
Senior Advocate Trideep Pais, representing Khalid, submitted that the case before the Supreme Court is not likely to conclude on the same day. “In so far as 124A is concerned, that is not an issue before you lordships. If it were only 124A, I would have got bail long ago, It’s [Section] 43D(5) [of UAPA] and whether 15, 17, 18 [of UAPA] are applicable at all,” Pais said via the petition.
Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, who is hearing the case along with Justice Siddharth Mridul, said that the court will list the bail plea after May 5. “Let the Surpeme Court take a view on it,” he added.
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