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The Supreme Court today(September 25) relaxed a bail condition as per which Meeran Haider, an accused in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case, will had to mark his attendance twice a week at the Police Station Crime Branch, Jai Singh Marg, New Delhi. The Court has allowed him to mark his attendance once every Saturday.

He has also been exempted from marking attendance on 17th and 24th October on account of his marriage.

It may be recalled that Haider was granted bail along with four other co-accused persons on January 5 by Justice Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria. The bench imposed 11 bail conditions, including that the accused persons can't post anything on social media, attend public gatherings, and circulate in any electronic or physical form any post or material.

Seeking relaxation of condition 5(attendance), 8 (not attend gathering) and 9(circulate posters), Meeran filed a Miscellaneous Application, which was argued by Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal. He submitted that instead of marking attendance twice a week, Meeran may be allowed to mark it on Saturday of every week. He reasoned that the accused wants to seek employment, so it would cause difficulty to mark attendance on weekdays. Further, relaxation was sought on other bail conditions.

At the outset, Justice Kumar said: "We will not relax any condition except where we have said he should mark his attendance, that we may think once a week or once within 10 days." The judge also questioned how the accused wants to seek employment when he has mentioned in the application that he wants to pursue a PhD.

As for the other conditions, Agarwal argued that bail conditions 8 and 9 can be added to condition 6, by which he is not allowed to influence any witness. However, the Court refused to allow any relaxation to these conditions. Since Additional Solicitor General SV Raju(for Delhi Police) was not present when the hearing took place, the matter was passed over. Eventually, ASG Raju came and opposed the plea. He stated that the accused "can get married at the police station" in a lighter vein. However, Agarwal objected to such kinds of statements.

Ultimately, the Court passed an order: "This application has been filed seeking for modification of 5.1.2026 to the extent that conditions 2, 5, 8 and 9. Having heard senior counsels appearing for the parties, Mr Siddharth Agarwal for the petitioner and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju for Delhi Police. We are not inclined to entertain the prayers to modify conditions 2, 8 and 9. However, considering hardship said to have been expressed by the petitioner, we are of the view that it would be suffice to direct the petitioner to mark the attendance on every Saturday between 10 am to 12 am before the Station House Officer, Police Station Crime Branch, Delhi Police, Office of the Commissioner of Police, Police Headquarters, Jai Singh Marg, New Delhi – 110001. To that extent, the application stands allowed. In the background of the petitioner said to be getting married, his presence before jurisdictional police on 17.10.26 and 24.10.26 stands exempted."

The relevant conditions on which Meeran sought relaxation are produced below:

v. Each of the appellants, namely Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Mohd. Saleem Khan, and Shadab Ahmed, shall personally appear twice a week, that is on Monday and Thursday between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon, before the Station House Officer, Police Station Crime Branch, Delhi Police, Office of the Commissioner of Police, Police Headquarters, Jai Singh Marg, New Delhi – 110001 and mark their attendance. The Station House Officer shall maintain a separate register of attendance in respect of each of these appellants and shall furnish a monthly compliance report to the Trial Court, which shall be placed on the main record of the case.

viii. The appellants shall not participate in any programme or address or attend any gathering, rally or meeting, whether physically or virtually till conclusion of the trial.

ix. The appellants shall not circulate any post either in electronic form or physical form or circulate any hand bills, posters, banners, etc in any form whatsoever.

Haider was amongst the activists who were at the forefront of organising anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019-2020. They are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code for allegedly formulating the "larger conspiracy" behind the communal riots which took place in the national capital in the last week of February 2020.

Case Details: MEERAN HAIDER Vs STATE GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI|MA 2837/2026 in Crl.A. No. 12/2026 Diary No. 54215 / 2026

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