Johal had previously been bailed in two cases. In March 2022, the high court of Punjab and Haryana granted bail on the basis that Johal had been imprisoned without trial for five years and that this violated his right to access to justice.

In August 2023, in an appeal filed by the National Investigations Agency to the March 2022 order, India’s supreme court challenged prosecutors to present credible evidence against him, and as they were unable to do so, upheld the lower court’s order granting bail.

As a result, Wednesday’s ruling appears to be directly at odds with the supreme court’s 2023 order, meaning the latest high court ruling could be subject to challenge in the supreme court.

Reprieve has insisted the cases against Johal are based on one false confession he gave after being tortured with electricity by police, who brought petrol into the cell and threatened to burn him alive.

“Prosecutors have now had almost seven years and have presented no physical evidence, no email trail, no CCTV footage, no record of a bank transfer, and no recordings of telephone calls linking Jagtar to the supposed conspiracy,” Reprieve said.

The officer who arrested Johal in 2017 admitted in court that there was no evidence against him when cross-examined under oath, Reprieve said. United Nations legal experts have recognised that he is arbitrarily detained and is being targeted for his human rights activism.

His brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal, said: “My brother should not be in prison. All he ever did was stand up for human rights, as we have said from day one. Prosecutors can’t come up with any evidence against him because there isn’t any.The decision made today serves as a sobering reminder that the deck is stacked against him. To prevent him from receiving justice, prosecutors are able to stretch out the case—possibly for decades. The prosecution has requested so many unnecessary adjournments that it has taken more than a year to evaluate even these basic bail requests.

Reprieve's Harriet McCulloch stated: "These bail decisions ought to jolt the UK government into action." It is obviously unfair to refuse Jagtar bail since his trials appear to have no conclusion in sight and no solid evidence has been offered. While his country looks on, India is arbitrarily detaining a British human rights activist.