The Delhi High Court on Friday set aside its interim order restraining the trial court from passing a final order on laying charges in the larger Delhi riots conspiracy case.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna set aside the interim order issued in September 2024, dismissing the petition filed by Pinjra Tod activist Devangana Kalita. Kalita sought access to CCTV footage and police WhatsApp group chats that the police relied on when registering two cases linked to the Delhi riots.
“The writ petition has been rejected. I cannot continue the stay once the petition is rejected,” a bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said while pronouncing the judgement.
However, the same judge allowed Kalita’s appeal seeking a police search of Malkhana, where case properties, including electronic records, are stored in connection with the larger Delhi riots conspiracy case.
The judge said while pronouncing the sentence: “It is permissible.”
A detailed copy of the two rulings is awaited.
Read also: Delhi HC rejects petition challenging Ishrat Jahan’s bail in 2020 riots case
The judgment was pronounced a day after the Delhi Police urged the court to transfer Devangana’s two petitions from the bench of Justice Krishna to any other judge for fresh hearing, on the grounds that judgment had been reserved on the petition in January, but had not been pronounced even after the Supreme Court’s May 29 ruling.
As per the judgement, the court issued directions to all high courts across the country, stipulating that bail applications should be decided on the same day, or at the latest, within 24 hours of the hearing, setting a maximum of three months for pronouncement of reserved judgements.
It is certain that under the directions, if no reserved judgment is given within three months, the matter must automatically come before the Chief Justice of the High Court within two weeks. If the ruling is not pronounced within the following two weeks, the President of the Court may re-refer the case to another body for a new hearing.
He also said that the Supreme Court’s September 2024 order, in which the court restrained the trial court from passing a final order on laying charges in connection with the larger Delhi riots conspiracy case, was used by the co-accused and former Aam Aadmi Party councilor Tahir Hussain to seek bail on grounds of delay in trial.
Kalita had approached the Supreme Court in 2023 against the city court’s August 5, 2023 order.
In this order, the city court refused to provide Kalita with a copy of CCTV footage relating to northeast Delhi and selective excerpts of police WhatsApp group chats which the investigating officers relied upon when registering two criminal cases against her for allegedly inciting riots and killing a person during the riots.
In September 2024, the SC restrained the city court, which was hearing a case alleging a larger conspiracy behind the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, from passing a final order on framing of charges.
In 2025, she then filed another petition against the court order of 7 December 2024, which rejected her request for a police malkhana (evidence room) inspection.
Justice Krishna had reserved judgment on both the petitions in January this year.
Apart from Kalita, student activist Natasha Narwal, University Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar, Tahir Hussain, and several others were also named as accused in the First Information Report (FIR) for allegedly being part of a deliberate conspiracy.
