No justifiable reason to not grant bail to Sharjeel Imam in sedition case: Delhi HC

New Delhi: There was no “justifiable reason” to not grant bail to student activist Sharjeel Imam in connection with a 2020 communal riots case involving allegations of sedition and unlawful activities but the trial court got “swayed by the enormity of the allegations” while denying him the relief, the Delhi High Court has said.

A bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, which granted bail to Imam on May 29, more than four years after he was arrested, said in its recently uploaded order that the mere fact of the allegations being serious cannot be a ground to decline bail under section 436-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The court asserted that CrPC section 436-A was a benevolent provision which was enacted with the idea that no undertrial prisoner be detained in jail beyond half of the maximum sentence provided for such offences unless there are rational and logical reasons to direct otherwise.

“In the case in hand, we do not find any justifiable reason which could have compelled the court from not granting the relief,” it said in the recently uploaded order.

“Learned Trial Court got swayed by the enormity of the allegations, observing that he had made inflammatory speeches which resulted in riots, the bail was declined,” the bench, also comprising Justice Manoj Jain, said.