The legal battle over former JNU scholar Umar Khalid’s continued incarceration in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case returned to the Delhi High Court on Friday, with the court issuing a notice to the Delhi Police on his third regular bail plea and a connected application seeking interim bail.A Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan sought the Delhi Police’s response and listed the matter for hearing on August 27, when the bail plea of co-accused Sharjeel Imam is also scheduled to be taken up.The High Court also issued a notice on Khalid’s interim bail application, which relies on the pending question before the Supreme Court on whether the guarantee of personal liberty under Article 21 can override the stringent embargo on bail under Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).The appeal challenges a July 4 order of the trial court rejecting Khalid’s third bail application. The trial court had held that it was bound by the Supreme Court’s January 2026 decision refusing bail to Khalid and Imam and had no liberty to revisit the issue in view of the conditions laid down by the apex court.During the hearing, senior advocate Trideep Pais, appearing for Khalid, told the Bench that apart from the regular bail appeal, an interim bail plea had also been filed in light of the Supreme Court’s observations in the Tasleem Ahmed case.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police, submitted that similar matters were already pending before the High Court and suggested that Khalid’s plea be heard with those cases fixed for August 27.Responding to the submissions, the Bench directed the issuance of a notice and tagged the matter with the pending bail plea of Imam.This appeal challenges the July 4 order by which the trial court rejected the appellant’s third bail application. Noting the overlapping nature of the two matters, the court issued a notice and directed counsel to appear physically for arguments on the next date.Khalid has remained in judicial custody since his arrest in September 2020 in the larger conspiracy case registered by the Delhi Police special cell under provisions of the IPC and the UAPA.The case alleges that he was part of a conspiracy behind the communal violence in north-east Delhi during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in 2020, in which over 50 people were killed and hundreds injured.This is Khalid’s third attempt to secure bail. His earlier applications were rejected up to the Supreme Court. In January this year, the apex court granted bail to five co-accused but declined relief to Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.The legal landscape, however, shifted after another Bench of the Supreme Court, while dealing with a separate matter, questioned the correctness of the order refusing bail to Khalid. It observed that “bail is the rule and jail the exception” even in UAPA cases and noted that the earlier ruling appeared to be at variance with the principles laid down in the KA Najeeb judgment, which recognised prolonged delay in trial as a valid ground for bail despite the rigours of the anti-terror law.The issue has since been referred to a larger Bench of the Supreme Court.In his latest plea, Khalid has contended that more than six months after the Supreme Court declined him bail, the trial has made little progress, with arguments on framing of charges still incomplete, warranting reconsideration of his continued detention.