Delhi High Court Permits Riots Accused Natasha Narwal to Pursue PhD in UK, Says UAPA Does Not Impose Blanket Travel Ban
The Court told her to not claim refuge in the UK and that her brother shall stand surety.
Delhi high court granted Delhi riots accused Natasha Narwal the permission to go to UK for pursuing studies and meet her research supervisors for her PhD.
An order was passed by Justice Amit Bansal on October 16 setting aside the order by the Trial court dated October 6 wherein the permission had been denied.
In its order the Court held that merely a case registered under UAPA cannot be a blanket restriction to someone travelling out of India.
"In a blanket manner the Petitioner cannot be prevented to travel outside the country just because she is accused of grave offences under UAPA", stated the High Court.
Thus on personal surety of Rs. 1 Lakh and brother standing as surety she can travel. Also the Court stated that she would not claim refuge in the UK and state anything regarding the cases against her.
Natasha Narwal is doing her PhD from University of Warwick. She moved the Court to permit her to visit UK and attend an International Academic Conference in London. Her research paper Gendered Carceral Labour as Social Reproduction was selected for the conference.
She also wanted to visit her PhD supervisors and be a part of activities going on at the University.
State has resisted her plea saying that she can do these things over a video conference. The State also claimed that if she travels to UK she might take refuge there creating difficulties.
High Court after looking into the matter said that the petitioner is doing her PhD since October 2023 and her research supervisors have asked her to come in person for doctoral trainings and to carry out her research.
As the trials are expected to take a long time to complete and no charge has been alleged against her for violating bail conditions since bail was granted she can travel.
Counsellor for Natasha Narwal was Adit S Pujari, Chaitanya Sundriyal, Manvender Singh Shekhawat and Harshvardhan Pushkin Sharma.
Delhi Police was represented by ASG SV Raju SPP Madhukar Pandey and Ayodhya Prasad along with advocates Dhruv Pande, Aarush Bhatia, Saravjeet Singh and Ishika Singla.
