Former JNU student Umar Khalid has moved the Supreme Court to request an open court hearing for his review petition challenging the denial of his bail. Khalid’s legal team, led by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Justice Aravind Kumar, requesting that the petition be heard with oral arguments rather than the standard procedure of deciding reviews in chambers.
Khalid is seeking a reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s January 5, 2026, judgment, which denied him bail under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). In that ruling, the court described Khalid and co-accused Sharjeel Imam as having a “central and formative role” in the alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. While the bench granted bail to five co-accused—including Gulfisha Fatima and Meeran Haider—it held that the evidence against Khalid and Imam placed them on a “qualitatively different footing.”
The court had previously emphasized that in UAPA cases, the gravity of allegations regarding national security outweighs prolonged incarceration as a ground for bail. Khalid has been in custody since September 2020, and his defense maintains that he was exercising his constitutional right to protest and was not physically present in Delhi when the violence erupted. Justice Kumar stated the court would “look into the paper” to decide if an open hearing is warranted for the review, which is currently scheduled for Wednesday.