![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/09\/indian-SC-court.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
New Delhi: Adding to the growing resentment in the judicial fraternity and civil society against the denial of bail to student activists and researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, former Indian Supreme Court judges, Justices Madan B Lokur and Sudhanshu Dhulia, have termed the verdict \u2018disappointing\u2019 and \u2018sad\u2019.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Indian Supreme Court last week denied bail to the two student activists who have been languishing in prison for over five years without trial for their alleged role in the 2020 Delhi anti-Muslim riots.<\/p>\n
Participating in a talk show hosted by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented Umar Khalid in the Supreme Court, Justice Lokur said he was \u201csad\u201d at the bail denial. In the same programme, where Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave was also present, Justice Dhulia said that the apex court\u2019s decision was \u201cdisappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Justice Lokur said that the judgment was particularly erroneous in not considering the aspect of delay in trial and the long incarceration of the appellants. Although Khalid and Imam were arrested in 2020, they were given the prosecution materials only in 2023, after three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not at all happy with the judgment. On the question of delay, the judgment is completely wrong,\u201d Justice Lokur said. He wondered how the appellants could be held responsible for the three-year delay in handing over the materials. He highlighted that records showed Khalid and Imam were always ready for arguments on charges.<\/p>\n
Earlier, former Indian Minister for Law and Justice Ashwani Kumar said \u201cthe libertarians in this country today would be unhappy. The Constitution\u2019s conscience is libertarian, and \u2018bail is the rule and jail is an exception\u2019 is a well-established principle of criminal jurisprudence. Kumar added that prolonged incarceration without conviction raises serious constitutional concerns.<\/p>\n
In the Sibal talk show, Justice Lokur also questioned the basis of invoking the terrorism offence under Section 15 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against the accused. \u201cWhat did they do? Attended some meetings, created WhatsApp groups, gave speeches, and circulated pamphlets. How is this terrorist activity?\u201d Justice Lokur asked.<\/p>\n
Supplementing Justice Lokur\u2019s views, Justice Dhulia said that the judgment was \u201cdisappointing for me as a citizen of this country.\u201d He also questioned the basis of the Supreme Court imposing a one-year embargo on Imam and Khalid in applying for fresh bail. \u201cWhere did this come from?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Dushyant Dave opined that the \u201cjudges had made up their minds first and then they tried to fish for reasons.\u201d \u201cThe Supreme Court is consistently inconsistent. Getting justice is a matter of toss of coin. It depends on which bench your matter is listed. These boys should not have been even arrested in the first place. I don\u2019t understand how can there be even a prima facie case against them. They have not used any bombs, explosives, they have not caused violence, or deaths. So, what is this case about?\u201d Dave wondered.<\/p>\n
Sibal said that there are 750 FIRs filed in respect of actual violence in the Delhi riots, and in none of them, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam are named as the accused. Sibal said that the case is only an instance of the \u201cGovernment wanting to teach them a lesson.\u201d Agreeing, Justice Lokur said, \u201cIt appears to be so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: Adding to the growing resentment in the judicial fraternity and civil society against the denial of bail to student activists and researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, former Indian Supreme Court judges, Justices Madan B Lokur and Sudhanshu Dhulia, have termed the verdict \u2018disappointing\u2019 and \u2018sad\u2019. According to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":183640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/09\/indian-SC-court.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192610,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192609\/revisions\/192610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}