Symbolic political critique: Delhi court grants bail to 9 IYC workers in AI summit protest case

Delhi court grants bail to nine IYC workers, deeming their protest a symbolic political critique rather than a criminal act.

A court here has granted bail to nine Indian Youth Congress workers who were arrested in connection with the "shirtless" protest at the AI summit, saying the protest constituted symbolic political critique and pre-trial detention could "illicit pre-emptive punishment".

Judicial Magistrate First Class Ravi passed the order on Sunday (March 1, 2026) while hearing the bail pleas of the nine accused — Krishna Hari, Narshimha Yadav, Kundan Kumar Yadav, Ajay Kumar Singh, Jitendra Singh Yadav, Raja Gurjar, Ajay Kumar Vimal alias Bantu, Saurabh Singh, and Arbaz Khan.

"The protest, at highest, constituted 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; exit was orderly via escort," the court said.

It noted that the pre-trial detention, severed from any imperative necessity and devoid of persisting investigative demands, could illicit pre-emptive punishment antecedent to conviction.

"[This would be] a profound aberration fundamentally at odds with the bedrock axioms of criminal jurisprudence, which exalt liberty as the governing norm and incarceration as the narrowly circumscribed exception," the court said.

Opposing the bail pleas, Delhi Police submitted that the Constitution grants the right to peaceful protest, but there are also certain conditions.