Supreme Court Keeps Broad Bail Restrictions on Delhi Riots Accused Meeran Haider
The Supreme Court refused to ease Meeran Haider's bail conditions, maintaining bans on his participation in programmes, gatherings and distribution of material.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court declined to relax the extensive bail conditions placed on Meeran Haider, accused in the 2020 Delhi riots, emphasizing that the restrictions were intentionally broad and not confined to the pending case. Haider’s counsel, senior advocate Siddharth Agarwal, sought to narrow bans on attending or addressing programmes, rallies, and circulating any form of post, but the court rejected the proposal.
The only change granted concerned Haider’s police-reporting duty: he may now appear once a week on Saturdays between 10 am and 12 noon at the Crime Branch station, with two Saturdays waived for his wedding. The decision was issued by Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi, with Delhi Police’s ASG SV Raju not objecting. The original bail, granted on January 5, also covered four co-accused—Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed—while denying relief to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. The trial proceeds under UAPA charges.
Why it matters
The ruling keeps strict limits on a riot suspect’s public activity, affecting free-speech and protest rights in India.
In this story
