Delhi HC’s order surprising, says SC

  • The Supreme Court issued notice on Delhi Police appeals against the Delhi High Court order granting bail to student-activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha. 
  • They were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in a Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case.
  • SC declined to interfere with the bail order, but the bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian said “in a bail application, a 100-page judgment discussing all laws is surprising us” and “can have pan-India ramification”.
  • It directed that the judgment shall not be treated as a precedent and may not be relied upon by any of the parties in any of the proceedings.

HC RULING

  • The court reasoned that “the more stringent a penal provision, the more strictly it must be construed”. 
  • By doing so, it raised the bar for the State to book an individual for terrorism under the UAPA.
  • The three orders by Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani.
  • The court held that the phrase ‘terrorist act’ has been defined in a very wide and detailed manner within Section 15 itself, in our opinion, the court must be careful in employing the definitional words and phrases used in Section 15.
  • Section 15 of the UAPA defines “terrorist act” and is punishable with imprisonment for a term of at least five years to life. In case the terrorist act results in death, the punishment is death or imprisonment for life.
  • Under Section 43D(5), there is a legal bar on granting bail if the court is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accusation against those held is prima facie true.
  • SC judgement of 2019, in NIA v Zahoor Ahmed Watali, bars a detailed analysis of the evidence at the bail stage and rules that bail can be denied on “the broad probabilities” of the case.
  • The High Court has ruled that the bail court can look at the available evidence to satisfy itself about the prima facie truth of the case.


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