New Delhi: Days after the Delhi High Court denied bail to Umar Khalid in the Delhi riots case, senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Friday said Article 21 had been violated and “we will approach the Supreme Court” against the “injustice”.

The Rajya Sabha MP also questioned as to where India’s democracy was heading with political parties not raising such issues thinking that this may harm them politically. “We don’t want to do the right thing and raise our voice for it. Our lawyers, middle class and society are silent,” Sibal said. In an apparent swipe at former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud over his reported remarks that there were at least seven adjournments sought by Khalid’s counsel, Sibal said only two adjournments were sought by the defence when the matter was before the Supreme Court. “If the court does not give a verdict for years, are lawyers to be blamed for it. This is the state of affairs of the court. If you don’t want to give bail, reject the plea. Why do you have to do 20-30 hearings,” Sibal said at a press conference here.

“Umar Khalid has been in custody for the last four years, 11 months and 15 days and will continue to be in custody. There have been two appeals -- filed in 2022 and in 2024 -- that were rejected by high courts. One SLP was filed in 2023 but was withdrawn in 2024,” he said. Pointing out that the Supreme Court has stated that bail application should be heard as soon as possible and there are several verdicts to that effect, Sibal asked whether that has been applied to the case of Khalid.

“The first appeal that came before the high court had 28 hearings in 180 days. In 2024, an appeal was filed and it took 407 days to be rejected,” Sibal said. He said the case against Khalid pertains to a speech he made in Mumbai for which he has been charged under UAPA. The charge is that he gave a speech which implied that there would be violence in future and it is not about killing a person, kidnapping a person or attacking territorial integrity of the country, he said.

There is no direct evidence against him, Sibal claimed.

Sibal cited several cases in which the UAPA accused has been granted bail.

“I want to say with confidence that when they are put under trial almost all of them will be discharged.