On December 9, a Supreme Court bench comprised of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka ruled that courts should not hear bail applications for more than ten minutes."I find it a complete waste of time when bail applications are heard for on an on... like an appeal on merits. Bail applications should be heard for not more than 10 minutes."

The Supreme Court judge made these remarks while hearing an application filed by Sharjeel Imam, a Delhi riots suspect. The activist and Jawaharlal Nehru University scholar had petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the Delhi High Court's comment, made while denying bail to co-accused Umar Khalid, that Imam was the "main conspirator" in the 2020 communal riot.

When bail applications, which are supposed to be granted by the court in their discretion, were argued at length in the same way those appeals are argued, "this is what happens", Justice Kaul exclaimed.

"We have noticed in para 68 that the division bench has clarified that observations will not impact merits of the case. Therefore we clarify that any observation made regarding role of petitioner will not prejudice the petitioner in any manner," the top court said.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, who represented Imam, explained that the condition for the grant of bail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 required that applications be argued on their merits. Section 43D of the anti-terrorism statute prohibited the court from granting bail to an accused unless it found no reasonable grounds to believe that the accusations were prima facie correct.