New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned journalist Siddique Kappan’s plea for passport release, after counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh told the Court that she had only just received the application and needed time to take instructions. Kappan, who is on bail in the 2020 Hathras conspiracy case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, has moved the Court seeking relaxation of his bail conditions, including the release of the passport he was made to deposit when he was granted bail [Siddique Kappan v. State of Uttar Pradesh].
The application was taken up by a Bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe. The case title used here is descriptive, as the case number of the present application was not available at the time of writing.
Background
Kappan, a Kerala journalist who was then a reporter for the Malayalam portal Azhimukham and secretary of the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police with three others on October 5, 2020, in the Mant area of Mathura, while travelling to Hathras after the death of a young Dalit woman who had been gang-raped there. The police alleged that the group was going to Hathras to disturb peace and harmony, and the State has alleged that Kappan had links with the Popular Front of India and its student wing, the Campus Front of India.
Kappan has maintained that he was going to report on the case. He was booked under the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code. The allegations are untested at trial, and Kappan is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
The Supreme Court granted him bail in the UAPA case on September 9, 2022. The conditions required him to stay in Delhi for six weeks after release and report to the Nizamuddin police station every Monday, after which he could return to Kerala but had to report to the local police station there every Monday. He was also barred from leaving the jurisdiction without the Court’s permission, told to attend the trial court personally or through counsel, and directed to deposit his passport with the investigating agency.
The Allahabad High Court granted him bail in the connected money laundering case on December 23, 2022, and he walked out of the Lucknow District Jail on February 2, 2023, after about 850 days in custody.
On November 4, 2024, a Bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Sandeep Mehta relaxed the weekly reporting requirement, holding that it would no longer be necessary for him to report to the local police station. The Court then said the other prayers in that application could be agitated independently, and the remaining conditions, including the deposit of his passport, stayed in place.
UP seeks time
When the matter was called on Tuesday, Advocate Ruchira Goel, appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh, said she had just received the application seeking release of the passport and asked that it be listed on Monday, by which time she would have instructions.
Justice P.S. Narasimha accepted the request, observing:
Let her take instructions.
The Court then adjourned the passport-release plea. No order on the merits of the application was passed.
What comes next
The State’s response will decide how the Court approaches Kappan’s request to have his passport returned, a condition that has remained in force since his 2022 bail order while the trial in Uttar Pradesh continues. The grounds set out in the present application and the State’s stand on them were not available at the time of writing.
Case Title: Siddique Kappan v. State of Uttar Pradesh (descriptive)
Bench: Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe
Date: October 27, 2026
Appearances: Advocate Ruchira Goel for the State of Uttar Pradesh
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