New Delhi: A 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court, in a special sitting late evening today, stayed the Gujarat High Court order declining bail to Teesta Setalvad, and protected the activist from arrest for a week in the post-Godhra riots case.
The top court said the registry shall obtain orders from the Chief Justice of India for listing the matter before the appropriate bench. The 3-judge bench of the apex court was hearing the bail plea of Setalvad after a two-judge bench differed on granting her interim protection in the case linked to post-Godhra riots.
The bench headed by Justice B R Gavai and comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Dipankar Datta told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Gujarat government, that Setalvad was on interim bail since September last year and asked what was the urgency in taking her into custody. "Will the skies fall if interim protection is granted for some days to her?" the bench observed.
"We are taken by surprise by what the High Court has done…What is the alarming urgency?" Justice Gavai said, adding, "When a person is on interim protection for several months, isn’t that person entitled to one more week?" "We are sorry to say the single judge was totally wrong in not granting interim protection even for one week. When this Court has granted interim bail, extending it by a week would have been ideal," Justice Gavai said.
During the hearing, the top court observed that when there is a difference between two judges, it is always in “favour of liberty, we have to rule”. The bench queried Mehta why Setalvad cannot be given protection till a regular bench heard the matter. The top court noted that her conduct may be reprehensible, but today she is on bail.
The 3-judge bench hearing came shortly after Supreme Court judges Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice PK Mishra in a special hearing today said that there was a difference of opinion on the issue of granting interim protection to Setalvad and requested the Chief Justice to assign the matter to a larger bench.
Earlier in the day, the Gujarat High Court had rejected Setalvad's regular bail plea. Justice Nirzar Desai directed her to surrender immediately as she is out of jail after securing interim bail from the apex court in September last year. "As the applicant is out on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court, she is directed to surrender immediately," the court said in its order.
"Enlarging her on bail will send a false signal that everything in a democratic country is so lenient that even if a person goes to the extent of making efforts to unseat the then establishment and disrepute the image of the then chief minister to see that he is sent to jail, the person can be released on bail," the high court said. "This will encourage others also to act in a similar manner," it said.
Setalvad was taken into custody on June 25 last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case registered by Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in the post-Godhra riots cases. An Ahmedabad sessions court had on July 30, 2022, rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and Sreekumar in the case, saying their release will send a message to wrongdoers that a person can level allegations with impunity and get away with it.
The High Court had on August 3, 2022, issued a notice to the state government on the bail plea of Setalvad and fixed the matter for hearing on September 19. Meanwhile, she moved the Supreme Court (SC) for interim bail after the high court refused to consider her plea. The apex court, on September 2 last year, granted her interim bail and asked her to surrender her passport with the trial court till the time the Gujarat High Court decided her regular bail plea. The top court also asked her to cooperate with the probe agency in the investigation of the case. Setalvad walked out of jail on September 3.
Also read: 'What can happen in 72 hours?': SC judges differ on grant of protection to activist Teesta Setalvad
