The Delhi High Court refused to urgently hear the habeas corpus plea filed by Parliament security breach case accused Neelam Azad. Appearing for Azad, Advocate Suresh Kumar mentioned the plea before the vacation bench of Justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Shalinder Kaur.
Nonetheless, the Bench stated that there was no urgency in the matter. It observed that in any case, the matter will come up on January 3 and that there is no urgency. On Wednesday, Neelam Azad had filed the habeas corpus plea seeking immediate release from police custody.
The accused has challenged the legality of the trial court order dated December 21 remanding her to police custody. Azad contended that she was not allowed to consult lawyers of her choice to defend her during the remand proceedings.
In her plea, Azad claimed that it was only after the disposal of the remand application that she was asked by the court if she wanted to be represented by an advocate of her choice, to which she replied in the affirmative and an order was passed permitting the petitioner to consult her advocate.
She added that on December 14, she was produced before the court for the first time, after spending nearly 29 hours in police custody. Azad was arrested on December 13 with three other accused namely Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D and Amol Shinde.
Reports said that while Azad and Shinde were protesting outside the Parliament building, Sharma and Manoranjan entered the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors gallery with canisters emitting smoke. Consequently, two other accused were also arrested in the case.
The trial court on December 21 had directed the Delhi Police to share the FIR copy with Neelam Azad’s counsel. Nonetheless, the order was stayed by the High Court on December 22.