‘Where is the reasoning?’: Delhi HC restores Youth Congress chief Uday Bhanu Chib's bail in AI summit protest case

THe new delhi heights margaret court in a special posing on mon stayed a trial court order that had suspended the bail granted to Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Uday Bhanu Chib in connection with a protest at the India AI Impact Summit.A bench of Justice Saurabh Banerjee observed that the sessions court’s February 28 order was devoid of reasons and appeared to have been passed without due application of mind. “Where is the reasoning in this order (sessions court order)? According to my little understanding, the order has to be stayed,” the bench said to Delhi police’s lawyers.“Some application of mind has to be there…. Where (has) an exception, a rarity been carved out that there is some grant of an interim stay required? The order has to be stayed because there is no application of mind. Prima facie today, I am not satisfied with the order,” the bench further observed.Also read | Delhi court grants bail to Congress workers in AI summit protest case: ‘Symbolic political critique’Chib had approached the high court against the sessions court’s February 28 order staying the bail granted to him by the duty magistrate. Duty magistrate Vanshika Mehta of Patiala House Courts, before whom Chib was produced by the Delhi Police Crime Branch at 3.30 am on Saturday at her residence, granted bail to Chib, observing a lack of purpose in his further custody.However, this bail order was stayed by the sessions court in the evening till further orders. The sessions court observed that the magistrate’s order represented a rare and exceptional situation which warranted the grant of an ex parte stay at 3:30 am.It subsequently fixed March 6 as the next date of hearing on the police’s petition challenging the duty magistrate’s order, and issued a notice to Chib.The matter stems from a protest on February 20, when 15-20 male members of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) entered the summit venue and removed their T-shirts, revealing images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump along with the captions “PM is compromised” and “India-US Trade Deal".The protest, which occurred around 12:30 pm during a global event attended by delegates from multiple countries, lasted about 10-15 minutes.The Delhi Police registered an FIR under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including criminal conspiracy, causing hurt and assault on a public servant, disobedience of a public servant’s order, unlawful assembly, and violation of prohibitory orders.Special Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Devesh Chandra Srivastava stated that the incident appeared to be part of a premeditated conspiracy, and that the police possessed substantial evidence against the accused.On February 24, a court remanded Chib to four days of police custody for interrogation regarding his alleged role in the protest at Bharat Mandapam.