Delhi HC directs timely decision on Sharjeel Imam’s bail plea in sedition case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has instructed a trial court to make a decision on activist Sharjeel Imam's statutory bail application in a sedition case by February 17.

The bench, comprising Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain, has directed the trial court to announce its judgment within 10 days from the next hearing scheduled on February 7.

Imam, a former scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, is seeking statutory bail as he has already spent four years in jail, out of the maximum seven years for the sedition case. In case the trial court denies bail, the bench has allowed Imam to file a fresh application in the High Court.

The sedition case against Imam is related to alleged seditious speeches made during protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 and 2020. The police claim that Imam, in his speech at Aligarh Muslim University in 2020, advocated for cutting off Assam from India by occupying the "Muslim-dominated chicken’s neck," a term referring to the narrow land corridor in Siliguri, West Bengal.

Imam's legal team argued that the statement was a call for a peaceful road blockade, known as chakka jam, as a form of protest. The prosecution contends that Imam's speeches were divisive, both at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi in 2019.

Imam's plea for interim bail in the sedition case was rejected by a trial court in July 2022. He has been in jail since his arrest on January 28, 2020, facing multiple charges, including the Delhi riots case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.