The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure at Delhi police seeking adjournment of hearing on pleas against the bail granted to three student activists in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots case on the ground that a senior law officer representing them was busy in another court.

A bench of Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice A.S. Oka observed that solicitor-general Tushar Mehta may be busy in several matters, but some alternative arrangements have to be made so that the matter could be heard. “...If no alternative arrangement is made, we will presume that the government has nothing to say in the matter,” the bench said while posting the matter for hearing on February 21.

When the pleas had come up for hearing before the apex court on January 17, a deferment was sought by the police stating that Mehta, who is representing the state, was arguing before a constitution bench. The bench had then posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday.

When the matter was first called for hearing on Tuesday, it was passed over as the solicitor-general was not present. Later, when the matter was again taken up, advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the police, requested the bench to post the matter for hearing next week, saying the solicitor-general had to rush to another court.

“We are supposed to be sitting here... somebody else should come. The solicitor-general may be required in several matters,” the bench observed. While hearing the matter on January 17, the top court had observed: “We do not believe in unnecessarily keeping people behind the bars.”

The apex court was hearing the pleas filed by the police challenging Delhi High Court’s June 15, 2021, verdicts granting bail to activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha in connection with the communal violence during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Kalita, Narwal and Tanha are accused in four, three and two cases, respectively, related to the communal riots that broke out on February 24, 2020.