The Supreme Court on Monday stayed an order of the Delhi High Court granting Pinjra Tod activist Devangana Kalita access to documents and materials not relied upon by the Delhi Police in the chargesheet in the larger 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case.
The stay came on the basis of an appeal filed by the Delhi Police against the June 5 Supreme Court order, which allowed Kalita to examine unreliable documents. The Supreme Court also lifted its stay of first instance proceedings for 2024, allowing charges to continue.
Issuing notice on the Delhi Police’s appeal, a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi said: “In the meantime, the impugned order shall be stayed.”
While appearing for Kalita, advocate Adit S Pujari argued that the apex court granted relief on the basis of the apex court’s rulings. He referred to the court’s May 2025 judgment in Sarla Gupta v. Enforcement Directorate, which stated that under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), an accused is entitled to the list of documents which the investigating agency does not rely on while filing the charge sheet.
But the bench said: “We are not disposing of the appeal. You have to file your response,” and sent the matter for hearing two weeks later.
Pujari stated that the allegation against Kalita was that she indulged in stone pelting during the anti-CAA protests, even though the entire protest was captured on video. He said access to video footage would help prove that the protest was peaceful and refute police claims.
“This is the same case as Gulfisha Fatima. This way, you will not conclude the trial for the next 10 years and say there is a delay in the trial. You go and argue before the trial court,” the bench observed.
Kalita approached the Supreme Court in 2023, alleging that the Delhi Police had appointed certain persons to record the anti-CAA protests in February 2020 in which it participated. She requested copies of the footage before the lower court began arguments on filing charges, claiming the recordings would support her claim that she protested peacefully. Besides the video footage, she also sought WhatsApp chats of a group, alleging that the police relied only on selective excerpts against her.
On September 12, 2024, the Supreme Court directed the lower court not to pass a final order on framing charges in the alleged larger conspiracy case involving Kalita and several others, including former JNU scholar Omar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). By its June 5 order, the Supreme Court lifted the stay while allowing the trial against Kalita to continue.
According to Delhi Police, there was a larger conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi, in which 53 people were killed and more than 700 injured.
Police alleged that Kalita, along with other activists, conspired to create unrest in Jaffarabad, northeast Delhi, under the guise of peaceful protests. A Delhi court granted her bail in the Jaffarabad violence case in September 2020. In the larger conspiracy case, the Supreme Court granted her bail along with several other activists in 2021, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court later in the same year.
