The long-drawn legal battle surrounding the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots "larger conspiracy" case has reached a significant turning point in the highest court of the land. A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice P.B. Varale has orally indicated a strong inclination to grant relief to co-accused Khalid Saifi and Tasleem Ahmed. In a reassuring statement directed at the defense counsel, Justice Kumar remarked, “In all probability, you will get relief,” signaling a potential breakthrough for the two undertrials who have spent over five years in continuous custody under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The positive shift in the judicial atmosphere follows an intense push by the defense team, which focused heavily on the principle of parity and the sheer duration of the petitioners' incarceration without a trial in sight. Senior Advocate Rebecca John, representing activist Khalid Saifi, argued that her client’s alleged actions were entirely peripheral compared to the primary accused. Similarly, Advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for Tasleem Ahmed, forcefully presented his client as a minor figure in the wider prosecution narrative, metaphorically describing him as "the sidekick of a sidekick" whose alleged principals have already secured their freedom through prior court orders.
The sudden willingness of the bench to lean toward granting relief has met with aggressive institutional resistance from the Delhi Police. Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju sought a temporary adjournment to construct a comprehensive opposition, raising broader procedural alarms. The prosecution argued that the legal standards governing bail under UAPA have become deeply complicated by conflicting rulings from coordinate two-judge benches of the apex court, specifically pointing to a recent verdict which forcefully re-established that "bail is the rule and jail is an exception" even under specialized anti-terror laws.
This ideological clash over UAPA bail parameters forms the structural backdrop of the entire hearing. The state legal team has formally questioned whether a protracted delay in trial can be used to bypass the rigid, statutory "twin conditions" for bail found under Section 43D(5) of the UAPA. The prosecution went as far as to suggest that the entire legal question of granting bail based primarily on trial delays needs to be referred to a larger, multi-judge bench to establish a singular, binding standard, warning that current interpretations could inadvertently open the floodgates for high-risk individuals.
Despite these systemic objections, the Supreme Court chose to maintain its empathetic stance, noting that the petitioners are actively seeking the application of established constitutional principles regarding personal liberty under Article 21. The bench observed that while major figures in the case had their bail pleas rejected earlier, the present applicants fall squarely within the legal framework applied to co-accused who were successfully granted relief after their individual roles were structurally distinguished from the core instigators.
Following two days of extensive, high-stakes arguments from both sides, the Supreme Court has officially reserved its formal orders on the bail applications, alongside the state's request for a larger bench reference. The bench indicated that it would thoroughly examine the interplay between prolonged undertrial detention and statutory restrictions before delivering its final, written decision.
As the legal community and civil rights observers anxiously await the final verdict, the top court's vocal "prima facie" support has already sent a powerful wave of hope through the defense camp. For Saifi and Ahmed, who have been trapped in an endless cycle of legal rejections since 2020, those few reassuring words from the bench represent the closest they have come to reclaiming their freedom. Regardless of the final technical structure of the order, this hearing stands as a vivid reminder that the judiciary remains acutely aware of the deep human cost associated with endless pretrial incarceration.