Supreme Court divided on UAPA bail as appeal for larger bench made before CJI
In an extraordinary institutional moment at the Supreme Court, a clash of judicial views between two coordinate benches over bail jurisprudence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) spilled into the open on Friday, with one bench formally asking the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant to constitute a larger bench for an “authoritative resolution” of the law. The development came days after another two-judge bench criticised the January 5 judgment in the Delhi riots conspiracy case involving Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. (ANI) A bench of justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale, while hearing bail pleas by Delhi riots accused Tasleem Ahmed and Khalid Saifi, referred to the CJI the larger question of how the Supreme Court’s landmark three-judge ruling in Union of India Vs KA Najeeb (2021) ought to be applied in UAPA cases involving prolonged incarceration and delayed trials. The development came days after another two-judge bench – comprising justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan – openly criticised the January 5 judgment authored by Justice Kumar in the Delhi riots conspiracy …
