Delhi Excessive Court docket reserves order on MP Rashid’s plea to attend Parliament in custody

File image of Lok Sabha MP from Baramulla Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly generally known as Engineer Rashid.
| Picture Credit score: The Hindu

The Delhi Excessive Court docket on Tuesday (March 25, 2025) reserved its order on a plea by Jammu and Kashmir MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, who’s in jail in a terror funding case, searching for permission to attend the continued Parliament session.

A Bench of Justices Chandra Dhari Singh and Anup Jairam Bhambhani, which was initially inclined to grant the permission, later stated an in depth order could be handed.

The Bench deliberated on sure situations which might be imposed on Rashid in case the plea is allowed, together with that the Lok Sabha Speaker might be requested to grant particular permission to a police official to accompany the impartial Baramulla MP in Parliament premises.

Rashid’s plea was vehemently opposed by the NIA which stated the court docket would haven’t any jurisdiction inside Parliament.

A trial court docket had on March 19 dismissed Rashid’s common bail within the case.

Rashid, who’s dealing with trial underneath the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a 2017 terror funding case, has challenged a March 10 trial court docket order refusing him custody parole or interim bail to attend Lok Sabha proceedings until April 4.

Within the reply filed to the attraction on March 17, the NIA stated Rashid could not be allowed to make use of his standing as MP to “get away from rigours of imprisonment”.

The NIA argued that Rashid may neither be granted interim bail nor allowed custody parole as he had no enforceable proper to attend Parliament session whereas in lawful custody.

Calling Rashid a “extremely influential” one who would possibly sway witnesses in Jammu and Kashmir, the NIA stated, “Underneath Part 43D(5) of the UAPA, the accused can’t be granted bail if there are affordable grounds for believing that the accusations towards him are prima facie true.” On March 12, the excessive court docket sought NIA’s stand on Rashid’s attraction.

Rashid’s counsel urged the excessive court docket to allow him to attend the continued Parliament session on custody parole, akin to a earlier two-day reprieve granted to him.

Custody parole entails a prisoner being escorted by armed police personnel to the place of go to.

The Baramulla MP, who defeated Omar Abdullah within the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is dealing with trial in a terror funding case with allegations that he funded separatists and terror teams in Jammu and Kashmir.

He’s lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him within the 2017 terror-funding case.

In line with the NIA’s FIR, Rashid’s title cropped up throughout the interrogation of businessman and co-accused Zahoor Watali.

After being chargesheeted in October 2019, a particular NIA court docket framed prices towards Rashid and others in March 2022 underneath Sections 120B (legal conspiracy), 121 (waging warfare towards the federal government), and 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code and for offences regarding terrorist acts and terror funding underneath UAPA.