Delhi HC Refuses To Expunge Court Remarks In Order Discharging Sharjeel & Others

The Court was hearing Delhi Police's plea against the order discharging Sharjeel & 10 others in the 2019 Jamia case.

(Image altered by The Quint)

The Delhi High Court on Monday, 13 February, said that the remarks in the trial court 's order discharging Sharjeel Imam and ten others in the 2019 Jamia violence case will not impact the other investigation or proceedings of the other accused.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma declined to pass an interim order to expunge the remarks as asked for by the Delhi Police.

I am only going to say that the observations against the police will not affect the investigation. I will not expunge them," the Court said.

What had the Delhi Police said? The Court was hearing Delhi Police's petition against the order by Additional Sessions Arul Varma, which had discharged Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha and eight others in the 2019 Jamia violence case.

The order in question: In his 4 February order, Judge Varma had made some scathing remarks against the Delhi Police.

The court pulled up the Delhi Police for filing an "ill-conceived" chargesheet, and added that their case was "devoid of irrefragable evidence".

Later, Judge Varma recused himself from hearing related cases citing "personal reasons."

According to the court, the police failed to get hold of the actual perpetrators and instead roped in Imam, Tanha, Zargar and others as "scapegoats."

The Jamia case: The case is about the violence that unfolded in and around Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019 after students and locals declared that they would protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

However, the protests soon took a violent turn, and as the police used force to quell them, some of the protesting students allegedly entered the University.