More than 110 public intellectuals, activists, academics, filmmakers and citizens — including historian Ramachandra Guha, economist Jayati Ghosh, author Arundhati Roy, and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha — have written an open letter to the Chief Justice of India, urging the court to grant bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who have now spent six years as undertrial prisoners in the 2020 Delhi riots "larger conspiracy" case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The signatories also include actors Prakash Raj and Swara Bhasker, journalist Rana Ayyub, writer Meena Kandasamy, JNU professors Nivedita Menon and Ayesha Kidwai, and CPI(ML) Liberation MP Raja Ram Singh, among others from academia, cinema and civil society.
The CJI's Own Words
The letter argues that in a recent lecture in Sweden, the CJI cited the Supreme Court's 2021 three bench ruling in K.A. Najeeb case, to underline that constitutional courts retain the power to grant bail once prolonged incarceration itself begins to violate the right to a speedy trial under Article 21 — even under a stringent law like UAPA.
The letter quotes the Najeeb judgment's core holding that the rigours of bail-restricting provisions "will melt down where there is no likelihood of trial being completed within a reasonable time and the period of incarceration already undergone has exceeded a substantial part of the prescribed sentence."