More than 100 activists, writers, filmmakers and academics have written an open letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant seeking the release of student activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who have been in jail without trial for nearly six years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in relation to the 2020 Delhi riots.
The letter, signed by prominent figures including Arundhati Roy, Ramachandra Guha and Amitav Ghosh, expressed concern over the prolonged incarceration of the two activists and said that the UAPA was being used to keep them in custody for an inordinate period without a trial.
The signatories referred to a recent lecture delivered by Surya Kant in Sweden, in which he spoke about the Supreme Court's judgment in Union of India v KA Najeeb. In that case, the Supreme Court granted bail to an accused who had spent nearly six years in custody without trial in a UAPA case.
The signatories urged the CJI to ensure that the principles laid down in the Najeeb judgment are applied to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam as well.
In the Najeeb case, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that even under stringent laws such as the UAPA, an accused cannot be kept in prison indefinitely, particularly when there is little likelihood of the trial being completed within a reasonable period. Surya Kant was a member of the bench that delivered this landmark judgment.
The letter pointed out that nearly six years after their arrest, the trial against Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam has not begun, despite the prosecution having listed around 900 witnesses. Their bail pleas have also been rejected repeatedly by different courts, including by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court in January 2026 in the Gulfisha Fatima v State.
The January ruling in Gulfisha Fatima v State has subsequently come under scrutiny in another Supreme Court judgment, Syed Iftikhar Andrabi v National Investigation Agency, delivered on May 18, 2026.
In that case, Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the earlier two-judge Bench had not only denied bail but had also restricted the accused's ability to seek bail for another year. The Bench further held that the earlier ruling had departed from the principles laid down by the three-judge Bench in KA Najeeb.
The open letter urged the CJI to intervene, warning that prolonged pre-trial detention could undermine constitutional protections and allow stringent laws such as the UAPA to be used to silence critics and dissenters without the allegations being tested at trial.
“We urge your intervention to reverse this travesty of justice unfolding before our eyes,” the letter said.
They expressed that prolonged incarceration could render a subsequent acquittal meaningless, since the years spent in prison can not be restored.
The signatories also invoked the Supreme Court's repeatedly stated principle that "bail is the rule, jail an exception", arguing that it should be applied consistently even in cases involving stringent national security laws.
“It is dissent that breathes democracy into a republic. As long as such laws continue to deny liberty and justice of those who practice dissent, we will only be doing disservice to the principles of democracy,” the letter read.