The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Delhi High Court to expedite hearing the bail petition of activist Sharjeel Imam, Bar and Bench reported.

Imam has been charged with conspiracy under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in connection with the 2020 riots in the national capital.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma, however, dismissed the petition filed directly before the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.

Article 32 gives citizens the right to directly approach the Supreme Court to enforce their fundamental rights.

The bench had decided to dismiss the plea outright. However, advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Imam, submitted that he was not seeking a bail from the Supreme Court, but was requesting directions to the High Court to hear the matter expeditiously.

Dave said that under Section 21(2) of the National Investigation Agency Act, the High Court must decide an appeal within three months, Live Law reported.

Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020. He was eligible for statutory bail as he had spent four years in jail, while the maximum sentence for his alleged offence in the sedition case is seven years.

Imam’s bail plea, filed before the High Court in April 2022, has been adjourned 64 times, with the petitioner requesting time on eight occasions, Dave said.

The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, asking the High Court to hear the bail application expeditiously. The bench noted that the matter is scheduled for hearing before the High Court on November 25.

Imam moved the Supreme Court after the High Court in September rejected his plea for an early hearing of his bail application.

Imam, a former scholar at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, contended that the bail hearing was getting delayed and there was no likelihood of his trial being completed soon, as the police had not concluded its investigation.

More than 1,000 witnesses are set to be examined by the court, he had pointed out to the High Court at the time.

On May 29, the High Court granted bail to Imam in a case about making allegedly seditious speeches during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. However, he remained in jail in a conspiracy case related to the Delhi riots.

Clashes had broken out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

The Delhi Police has claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was plotted by those who organised the protests against the contentious citizenship law.