Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam have separately moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's judgment rejecting their fresh bail pleas in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots 'larger conspiracy' case, IANS reported. According to details on the Supreme Court's website, Khalid's petition is registered as Diary No. 70020/2026 and Imam's as Diary No. 70106/2026; both Special Leave Petitions were filed on November 4 and are currently shown as 'Cases under Defect List valid for 90 Days'. Khalid filed through advocate N. Sai Vinod and Imam through advocate Fauzia Shakil, IANS said.

Source: IANS via HiIndia

The petitions challenge a common judgment delivered on September 30 by a Delhi High Court Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Dinesh Bhatt, which rejected their appeals against the trial court's July 4, 2026 orders refusing regular bail. The High Court held that it could not modify the specific conditions the Supreme Court imposed when it rejected their earlier bail pleas in January 2026, Bar and Bench reported. 'In view of the above discussion and overall facts of these cases, specifically the conditions imposed by the Supreme Court in Gulfisha Fatima, this court cannot find fault with the order passed by the trial court. The present appeals are therefore dismissed,' the High Court said.

Source: Bar and Bench

On January 5, 2026, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria denied bail to Khalid and Imam, describing them as 'ideological drivers' of the alleged larger conspiracy, while granting bail to five co-accused — Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd. Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed — after distinguishing their alleged roles, LiveLaw reported. The Court allowed Khalid and Imam to renew their pleas after the prosecution's protected witnesses were examined or after one year from the order, whichever was earlier.

Source: LiveLaw

In the new petitions, Khalid has submitted that charges are yet to be framed and the prosecution has failed to examine witnesses, so the 'whichever is earlier' condition cannot realistically be met within the outer limit of January 5, 2027, and has urged bail on grounds of prolonged incarceration, LiveLaw reported. Imam's petition contends that the prosecution has not examined a single witness in the years he has spent in custody, LawBeat reported. Both pleas also rely on the Supreme Court's judgment in Syed Iftikhar Andrabi's case, in which a different Bench questioned the January 2026 bail denial, and on the May 22 order referring the conflict over the K.A. Najeeb prolonged-incarceration principle to a larger Bench while granting six months' interim bail to co-accused Tasleem Ahmed and Khalid Saifi, according to LiveLaw and Bar and Bench. The police had countered in the High Court that a coordinate Bench's judgment in a different case cannot override the specific findings in Khalid and Imam's own case, Bar and Bench reported.

Source: LiveLaw

The case arises from FIR No. 59/2020, registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code over the alleged larger conspiracy behind the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February 2020, in which 53 people were killed, IANS reported. The allegations against all accused remain allegations; no court has convicted Khalid or Imam in this case. What happens next: the two petitions, now on the defect list, must be cleared for listing before a Bench hears them.

Source: IANS via HiIndia