Restrict arguments to 15 minutes: SC tells accused in 2020 Delhi riots case

Observing that a time schedule is required to be fixed for arguments, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the lawyers appearing for the accused in the February 2020 Delhi riots to restrict their oral arguments to 15 minutes.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria said any clarification by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju on the arguments put forward by the accused’s lawyers shall not exceed 30 minutes.

“Arguments have been advanced by both sides substantially. We are of the view that a time schedule is required to be fixed.

Oral arguments shall not exceed 15 minutes each and clarification by ASG will not exceed 30 minutes,” the bench said, while posting the matter for hearing on December 9.

The court also directed the lawyers appearing in the matter for the accused to submit their permanent addresses.

Seeking bail in the case, activist Sharjeel Imam expressed anguish before the apex court on Tuesday over being “labelled” a “dangerous intellectual terrorist”, without a full-fledged trial or a single conviction.

“I would like to say that I am not a terrorist, as I have been called by the respondent (police). I am not an anti-national as called by the State.

I am a citizen of this country, a citizen by birth and I have not been convicted for any offence till now,” senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, representing Imam, said. He contended that Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020, which was before the communal violence that rocked northeast Delhi, for his speeches that alone cannot constitute the offence of “criminal conspiracy” in the riots case.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Umar Khalid, submitted that his client was not in Delhi when the riots broke out in February 2020 and that he cannot be kept incarcerated “as if to say that I will punish you for your protests”.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Gulfisha Fatima, told the court that the activist has spent under six years in incarceration and termed the delay in the trial “astonishing and unprecedented”.

Strongly opposing the bail pleas of Khalid, Imam and others, the Delhi Police said the February 2020 riots were not something spontaneous, but an “orchestrated, pre-planned and well-designed” attack on India’s sovereignty.

Khalid, Imam, Fatima, Meeran Haider and Shifa Ur Rehman have been booked under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the riots, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.

The violence erupted during widespread protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).