NEW DELHI: Unprecedented situations require unprecedented solutions, said a Delhi court on Tuesday while allowing the extension of judicial custody of Safoora Zargar and Meeran Haider, Jamia Coordination Committee members booked under UAPA in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the CAA 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 require 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 order said.
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.
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 when the Special Courts which can extend her custody have not been functioning due to the lockdown.
The police on Tuesday saidthat for the purpose of the extension of remands, the District Judges had deputed duty Metropolitan Magistrates in jails situated and the remand of the accused persons were extended in terms of the directions issued by the High Court.
With agency inputs