Delhi violence: Unprecedented situations requires unprecedented solutions, says Delhi court

Unprecedented situations requires unprecedented solutions, said a Delhi court on Tuesday while allowing an application of the police seeking extension of judicial custody of Safoora Zargar and Meeran Haider, Jamia Coordination Committee members booked under the stringent anti-terror law -- Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act -- in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in February. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana remanded them to further custody till June 25 after they were produced before him through video conferencing from Tihar jail.

"Unprecedented situations requires unprecedented solutions. Judicial notice can be taken of the fact that during the lockdown period because of the Covid-19 pandemic the functioning of the courts was suspended and there was a ban on any movement in the country. "The inmates were also not produced in the courts and as an emergency measure, a duty magistrate was posted in the Tihar jail to dispose of the remand work. In such circumstances, the investigating agency had no other option but to seek extension of the judicial remand by the duty magistrate," the court said in its order.

The observations came when the counsel for the accused claimed that the previous extension of remand by a duty magistrate was illegal as per the law as only a Special Court can hear matters of UAPA. The application was moved as District and Sessions Judge of Patiala House Courts had passed an order on May 22 that Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana shall deal with the entire remand work pertaining to UAPA, SC/ST Act, PMLA Act, Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, Drugs and cosmetics Act and Official Secrets Act.

This comes after the Delhi High Court had issued notices to both the Centre and the Delhi government over continued detention of Jamia student Fatima Khatoon, 25-year-old MBA student under UAPA in the case when the Special Courts which can extend her custody have not been functioning due to coronavirus-induced lockdown. The police on Tuesday clarified before the local court that for the purpose of the extension of remands, the District Judges had deputed duty Metropolitan Magistrates in jails situated in Delhi and the remand of the accused persons were extended in terms of the directions issued by the High Court.

"There cannot be found any fault on the part of the investigating agency which was simply complying with the provisions of the law and directions of the court," police said. Advocates Akram Khan and Ritesh Dhar Dubey, appearing for Haider and Zargar respectively, claimed that the remand application has been mischievously moved by the investigating agency and in order to cure the "illegal" extension of remand.

Dubey said that Zargar was illegally lifted from her house on April 10 by the police. Khan argued that provisions of UAPA have been "illegaly" invoked by the Special Cell of the Delhi police which does not have the power to do so under the law.

Magistrate was incompetent to extend remand in case of UAPA since as per the law, only the special designate court has the jurisdiction, he said. To this the court said that as per the law till the time National Investigating Agency (NIA) takes up the probe of the case, it shall be bounden duty of the officer in charge of the police station to continue with the investigation.

However, the court refused to comment on the legality/illegality of the extension of the judicial custody remand by the duty magistrate. "Law does not compel a man to do that which he cannot possibly perform and law does not expect a party to do the impossible are well known maxims in law and would squarely apply to the present case.

"In the case at hand, no injustice can be claimed merely because due to prevailing unprecedented health emergency, the duty magistrate has extended the remand under the administrative directions," it said. Haider is a PhD student and Zargar is a MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia University .    Besides Haider and Zargar, Jamia student Gulfisha Khatoon, activist Khalid Saifi, former Congress councilor Ishrat Jahan and suspended AAP councilor Tahir Hussain were also produced before the court through video conferencing.

Police had moved an application seeking to extend the judicial custody of Haider, Safoora and Hussain for 30 days and till June 14 for Jahan and Saifi. While the court allowed the police plea for Haider and Safoora, it said the applications for the rest will be taken up on the day their judicial custody would expire.

Saifi and Ishrat are in judicial custody till May 30 and the judicial custody of Hussain will expire on May 29. The police said in its application that there was sufficient evidence against the accused persons to be charge sheeted under the invoked sections of UAPA, other sections of IPC and other acts in the case.

Advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for Khatoon, had said that she has been falsely booked under the anti-terror law. The accused have also been charged under sedition, attempt to murder, murder, criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc.

Jamia Alumni Association President Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha and Umar Khalid have also been booked under UAPA in the case. Khalid has not been arrested yet. According to the FIR, the communal riots from February 23-26 was a "pre-meditated conspiracy" and hatched by Khalid and his associates. All the associates were linked to two different groups, FIR said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)