NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Sunday ordered the immediate release of 14 students who were arrested in connection with a protest demonstration at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus recently.
The court had granted bail to the 14 protesters on February 27, saying while assaulting police personnel is a serious offence, the accused are students with their careers ahead of them.
Duty Magistrate Ravi was hearing the students' plea against a magisterial court's order that had sent them to 14 days' judicial custody, till the verification process of their documents and bail bonds was completed.
The court said, "Although the said judgment pertained to verification of surety bonds by jail authorities and police after grant of interim bail, the underlying constitutional principle is clearly that procedural formalities cannot be so protracted as to render the judicial order of bail illusory."
The court said the right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution does not countenance the avoidable and disproportionate detention of an undertrial who has been judicially found entitled to bail but "is nonetheless confined solely because the administrative process of verification is lagging".
"The law has consistently recognised that the objective of bail is to secure the presence of the accused at trial, not to inflict pre-emptive punishment," the magistrate said.
The court also noted that if outstation verification is permitted to dictate continued incarceration, without outer limits or alternative safeguards, the grant of bail may effectively become illusory for all outstation students and undertrials.
"This court is of the view that the ends of justice would be met by permitting the release of the accused persons from judicial custody pending verification of their bail/surety bonds, but subject to stringent and carefully-crafted conditions to address the concerns raised by the prosecution," the court said.
Opposing the release of the protesters, the investigating officer (IO) submitted in the court that the verification of the permanent addresses and sureties is essential to ensure their presence during the trial and prevent absconding, especially as some of the accused had initially not disclosed correct particulars.
The arrests followed an attempted march by JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) members, who had gathered at the Sabarmati T-Point on the campus and sought to move towards the education ministry as part of the ongoing protests against JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit's recent remarks on a podcast over the implementation of University Grants Commission (UGC) norms, rustication of office-bearers of the students' union and the proposed Rohith Vemula Act.
Police personnel, however, stopped the protesters at the heavily-barricaded university gates, leading to a scuffle.
Those held included JNUSU president Aditi Mishra, vice-president Gopika Babu, former president Nitish Kumar and joint secretary Danish Ali.
A total of 51 protesters were detained, with the Delhi Police claiming that the students resorted to physical assault, injuring several of its personnel, during the confrontation.