3 min readNew DelhiMar 2, 2026 07:53 PM IST
Calling their protest during the India AI Impact Summit a “symbolic political critique during a public event”, a Delhi court on Sunday granted bail to nine Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers in connection with their ‘shirtless’ protest. It, however, dismissed the bail plea of another worker.
“The protest, at highest, constituted a symbolic political critique during a public event… T-shirts with leadership imagery, non-inciteful slogans bereft of communal/regional taint, and transient assembly. No evidence discloses property defacement or delegate panic…,” said Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Ravi of Patiala House Court in his order.
“The alleged conduct constitutes political dissent, distant from recidivist violence or organised crime…,” JMFC Ravi added.
No ‘single offence’ carries death, life sentence sanctions: Court
“At the outset, a threshold and dispassionate scrutiny of the array of penal provisions invoked in the FIR inexorably reveals that not a single offence carries the draconian sanction of death, life imprisonment, or incarceration exceeding seven years,” the judge said.
JMFC Ravi said, “In the instant matrix, the applicants have already endured a substantive police custody phase spanning 11-12 days in aggregate, during which their mobile phones, digital devices, and concomitant data have been comprehensively impounded by the Investigating Officer.”
The court also noted that the case was “predominantly digital-centric” and devices and data in the particular case had been seized. “… incriminating material like CCTV footage and event videos remain in public domain and institutional custody,” the magistrate said.
“The IO’s invocation of a ‘nascent stage’ in investigation rings patently hollow in the post-police custody continuum, for confrontation with absconding co-accused… remains eminently feasible through judicial summons… or the applicants’ solemn undertaking of cooperation, as tendered before this Court,” he added.
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On February 20, a group of men reached Bharat Mandapam wearing jackets and sweaters. Underneath, they wore T-shirts with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture printed on them. They allegedly removed the jackets and sweaters and started raising slogans at the venue.
While opposing the bail pleas, the Delhi Police had stated that the protest was deliberately held at the Summit and not at designated protest sites like Jantar Mantar, adding that their shirts read: “India compromised with America”.
According to the police, the accused had allegedly raised anti-national slogans in the presence of international media to “tarnish the country’s image”. It was further claimed that police personnel who tried to stop them were attacked.
In the early hours of Saturday, IYC national president Uday Bhanu Chib was granted bail by a magistrate court — hours later a Sessions Court stayed the order until March 6.
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The sessions court judge had said that it was a “rare and very exceptional case” that Chib was produced at the magistrate’s house at 3.30 am on Saturday for bail.
In total, 14 people, all members and office-bearers of the IYC, had been arrested in the case. Five still remain in custody.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
