Supreme Court refuses to ease bail condition for Delhi riots accused to attend law classes in Ghaziabad

The Supreme Court on Monday (October 26, 2026) refused to relax a bail condition barring Shadab Ahmad, an accused in the alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots, from leaving the national capital to attend law classes at a university in Ghaziabad.

A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M. Pancholi declined his plea to modify the condition requiring him to remain in Delhi during the trial. “This we will not modify... We know why you joined that law college, leaving out all the law colleges inside Delhi,” the Bench said.

On January 5, 2026, the Court had granted bail to Mr. Ahmad, along with activists Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Meeran Haider, in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, while imposing stringent conditions and cautioning that any misuse of liberty would invite cancellation of bail.

In the same ruling, the Court had denied bail to former JNU student leaders Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who had been incarcerated since 2020, while allowing them to seek bail afresh after the examination of protected witnesses, or after a year.

Counsel for Mr. Ahmad told the Court that he was on the “path of reformation” and had secured admission to a law course in Ghaziabad, after failing to gain admission to the three-year LL.B. programme at Delhi University.

“He is on the path of reformation, my Lords. He has secured admission in a law college... He applied for a three-year course in Delhi University, but he was not able to secure admission there. He will go in the morning and come back in the evening... It is 10 km from Delhi,” the counsel submitted.

The Bench, however, was not inclined to entertain the plea, and questioned why Mr. Ahmad had not approached the trial court for modification of the bail condition. His counsel subsequently sought permission to withdraw the plea, which the Court allowed. “The counsel seeks leave of the court to withdraw. Dismissed with liberty to approach the trial court,” the Bench said.

The Court had imposed stringent conditions while granting Mr. Ahmad bail, including barring him from attending or addressing any public function or rally, physically or virtually, until the conclusion of the trial. He, along with the other accused granted bail, was also prohibited from circulating posts, handbills, posters or banners in electronic or physical form.

The riots of February 2020 in north-east Delhi broke out during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.

All the accused were booked under the stringent anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code, for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the riots.