The Supreme Court today, Wednesday, January 31, postponed a hearing on a bail petition submitted by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar and student leader Umar Khalid – for the 12th time since his imprisonment. 

Umar Khalid was imprisoned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Delhi riots "larger conspiracy" case.

Due to time constraints, a bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi was unable to hear the case, which included a slew of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the UAPA, PTI reports.

The bench, also comprising Justice JB Varale, told senior advocate Kapil Sibal “We will keep it tomorrow.”

Sibal, who represents Khalid as his legal counsel, responded that he would not be able to present the case on Thursday (February 1) since he was scheduled to appear before the seven-judge Constitution Bench, for the issue of the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

It was also proposed that the hearing on related matters that contested the anti-terror law's provisions start.

The bench responded, "We will see tomorrow," as it rose for the day.

The batch of petitions was postponed by the top court last week due to Justice Trivedi's having to hold further planned special sittings.

The Supreme Court had previously emphasised that since Khalid is incarcerated, the matter needs to be heard and expressed reservations to adjourn the case.

"We will not grant any adjournment…The impression goes that the Court is not taking up the matter," it had remarked.

After his plea for regular release was denied on October 18, 2022, by a Delhi High Court bench consisting of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar, Khalid filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

He had already been denied bail in the UAPA case by a trial judge.