New Delhi: Senior advocate Vrinda Grover has said that student activist Umar Khalid has spent six years in prison without trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, solely because of the ideas he holds and the active exercise of his rights as a citizen.
Speaking at an online event marking six years of Khalid’s incarceration as an undertrial prisoner in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots case, Grover said the chargesheet itself makes clear that Khalid’s imprisonment is rooted in his speech and thinking, not in any act of violence.
“He has been put behind bars for his ideas, for his thinking, for the active exercise of his citizenship,” she said. “That is what his chargesheet also says.”
Grover argued that expressing dissent in the current political climate has become near impossible. She noted that placing a poster saying “Free Umar Khalid” or raising the slogan is treated as a criminal act. “Free Umar Khalid is a valid statement to be made by any person who understands the Indian Constitution and who believes in Indian democracy,” she said.
She also drew a distinction between “undertrial” and “pre-trial” status, pointing out that Khalid’s trial has not yet begun at all. She criticised the Supreme Court for denying him bail on the grounds that he was the alleged “ideological driver” of the Delhi riots conspiracy, a characterisation she described as creating an artificial hierarchy among participants in the anti-CAA protests.
Grover referred to the 2026 case of Syed Iftikhar Andrabi v. National Investigation Agency, Jammu, in which a two-judge bench criticised the Gulfisha Fatima judgment for diluting an earlier three-judge bench ruling in KA Najeeb. That ruling had established that prolonged incarceration and low likelihood of an early trial should ease the strict bail conditions under UAPA. The Andrabi bench affirmed that bail, not jail, remains the rule even under UAPA.
Grover noted the contradiction now visible within the Supreme Court itself, with one bench declaring the Gulfisha Fatima ruling incorrect while another had relied on it to deny bail to Khalid.
“If you have evidence, complete the trial in a fair manner,” she said. “Pre-trial detention without testing evidence is something we should absolutely reject. In a democracy, if you have a view different from the regime, your place is not in jail but in Parliament.”
