CAA, AFTERMATH: FIRST 72 HOURS & FIVE YEARS LATER

For Delhi's memory, 2020 conversed with 1984. The authorship and institutional context differ, but survivors' language- marked properties, fear of impunity, late arrivals-rhymes across decades.

- TDG NETWORK NEW DELHI

BJP leader Kapil Mishra addressing supporters at Jafrabad on February 23. Photo: X

On October 27, 2025, India's Supreme Court snapped the long elastic of delay in the 2020 Delhi "larger conspiracy" case.

Refusing yet another adjournment, the bench told Delhi Police that bail pleas cannot be stalled indefinitely and fixed an early date for final hearing. The context was stark: several accused, including Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, and Gulfisha Fatima, have been in custody for nearly five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) while trials have scarcely moved. The Court's intervention revived a basic constitutional question that haunts the CAA's afterlife in Delhi: how a state that now moves quickly to contain street violence still struggles to deliver timely due process for those it detains.

That moment came roughly a year after the Union government finally operationalized the CAA by notifying rules in March 2024, transforming a oncesuspended statute into a working regime just ahead of national polls. Supporters called it a humanitarian promise kept; critics said it confirmed a religious turn in citizenship-and noted the timing. Either way, the CAA has already rewritten Delhi's political and legal landscape by yoking a citizenship debate to policing, protest, and a prolonged courtroom struggle.