Today, On 13th July, The Supreme Court requested responses from four states regarding the transfer of trials against Sharjeel Imam to Delhi. The Court is considering the centralization of these cases for a more streamlined judicial process. The decision to seek the states’ input reflects the Court’s aim to ensure a fair and consistent trial.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the opinions of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh regarding the potential transfer of trials involving Sharjeel Imam to Delhi. Imam, a former JNU student, petitioned to consolidate multiple FIRs filed against him for alleged sedition, arguing that these cases should be heard together in Delhi.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R Mahadevan asked the four states to state whether they object to the transfer of these trials to a Delhi court. The Court has set a four-week period for these states to submit their responses.
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During the brief proceedings, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Imam, informed the bench that chargesheets have already been filed in Assam and Manipur related to the FIRs against Imam. He also highlighted the issue of default bail in the Assam case.
The bench acknowledged the need to gather the states’ views before deciding whether to move the chargesheets to Delhi, where a consolidated trial could proceed. The Court reviewing Imam’s petition, originally filed in 2020, which seeks to combine multiple FIRs lodged against him in various states and transfer them to a Delhi court.
Previously, on May 26, 2020, the Supreme Court requested responses from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Manipur regarding this plea, and it also allowed the Delhi government additional time to submit its reply.
Imam is currently facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), following his arrest on January 28, 2020, by the Delhi Police’s crime branch in Bihar’s Jehanabad. The charges stem from allegedly inflammatory speeches he made at Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University, which later circulated on social media.
The Delhi Police filed an FIR against Imam on January 25, 2020, under sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among other charges.