The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted four weeks to the National Investigation Agency to file its rejoinder to a reply submitted by separatist leader Yasin Malik in an appeal seeking the death penalty in a terror funding case, and listed the matter for hearing on April 22.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja gave the agency a last opportunity.
Malik, who appeared virtually from Tihar jail where he is serving a life sentence, accused the NIA of wasting time and causing him trauma by repeatedly seeking dates in an appeal filed in 2023.
The court said there was no urgency in the matter, noting that it concerned the enhancement of the sentence and that Malik was already serving life imprisonment.
The NIA submitted that Malik had filed a lengthy reply containing material not related to the case and said the rejoinder was under vetting. The agency also objected to Malik’s claim of repeated adjournments, stating that he himself took about a year to file his reply. The NIA further informed the court that it was seeking an in camera hearing.
A Delhi trial court sentenced Malik, chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, to life imprisonment on May 24, 2022, after convicting him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The NIA appealed in 2023 seeking enhancement of the sentence to death, arguing that a life term was not commensurate with the gravity of the crimes.
In his reply, Malik said he had spent decades as part of a backchannel mechanism aimed at fostering peace in Jammu and Kashmir and accused the state of attempting to erase that history.