Riots: HC to hear plea against order to provide hard copies of chargesheet on Nov.11

Trial court had earlier directed police to give documents to riots accused

The Delhi High Court on Friday posted for next week hearing on a plea by Delhi Police challenging a trial court’s order directing it to provide hard copies of the chargesheet to 15 accused, who have been charged under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the north-east Delhi riots.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait said the hearing will take place on November 11 as the Centre’s senior law officer who had to argue the case was not available during the day.

Delhi Police has challenged the trial court’s September 21 and October 21 orders, directing it to supply the hard copy of the chargesheet along with documents to the accused persons in the case.

The plea said the police report itself is running into about 2,700 pages and the total number of documents and statements of witnesses are running into about 18,000 pages and there are 23 volumes, including the police report which were filed before the trial court.

The plea stated that all the accused persons have been given the copy of the chargesheet in Pendrive which is a sufficient compliance of Code of Criminal Procedure. It also stated that there is a proviso that if any document is voluminous, than instead of furnishing a copy, the court can direct that the person be allowed to inspect it either personally or through pleader in court.

The trial court had, however, declined the plea saying, “even though, it may be desirable to have soft copies of the chargesheet, the law still mandates that a hard copy is to be made available to the accused.”

Those who have been chargesheeted under the stringent UAPA Act include Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, former Congress councillor from Jagatpuri Ishrat Jahan, Jamia Coordination Committee media coordinator Safoora Zargar, student activist Gulfisha Khatoon, and social activist Khalid Saifi.

The list also include activist Meeran Haider, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) student Asif Iqbal Tanha, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, former Jamia student Shifa-Ur-Rahman, and five others — Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan and Athar Khan.