A three judge bench of the Supreme Court granted interim bail to activist Teesta Setalvad for one week.
The court was hearing a plea by Teesta Setalvad after Gujarat High Court rejected her regular bail plea in connection with the FIR by state police accusing her of fabricating documents to implicate high government functionaries in relation to 2002 Gujarat riots.
Earlier today, the Gujarat High Court rejected the activist's bail plea and directed her to 'surrender immediately' as she is out of jail after having secured interim bail from the apex court in September last year.
Soon after, the activist moved the Supreme Court but the judges differed on granting interim protection to her. "There is a disagreement between us on the question of grant of bail. So we request the Chief Justice to assign this matter to a larger bench," a bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra said.
Supreme Court Grants Bail To Teesta Setalvad
A larger bench of Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta while hearing the case, questioned the urgency of the 'immediate surrender' order given by the Gujarat High Court.
“Will the skies fall if interim protection granted…We are taken by surprise by what the High Court has done. What is the alarming urgency?" the bench asked, according to LiveLaw.
Justice Gavai : The question is whether the heavens will fall in eight days (if interim protection granted)?#SupremeCourt #TeestaSetalvad
In response, the Solicitor General said, "There is something more than meets the eye. There is something more than the innocuous manner in which the matter has been presented. This is a question of a person who is abusing every forum."
Justice Gavai asked if a person is not entitled to one more week of interim protection when they have received the same for several months.
The Solicitor General further said, "It is not a question of one individual. It is a question of rule of law. She is to be treated as an ordinary criminal," to which Justice Gavai said that even an ordinary criminal was entitled to interim relief.
"Kindly see what kind of litigant is she (refers to an earlier HC order refusing bail). This is not an ordinary case. This is somebody who takes every institution for ride. Somebody who writes to international organizations in Geneva, maligning the country," the Solicitor General further said.
The three-judge thought it fit to grant her interim bail. "What harm if granted for 8 more days," the bench noted. They further stayed the Gujarat High Court's order which rejected her regular bail application.
The court further said that they are not going into the merits of matter, and are only concerned with the part of high court order rejecting Setalvad's request for stay on implementation.
The journalist and Mumbai-based activist was taken into custody on June 25, 2022, just a day after the Supreme Court rubbished a plea filed against the clean chit given to the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and 63 others over allegations of involvement and complaceny in the riots.
The activist, retired Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt have been charged under sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture) of the IPC, among other provisions.
According to a report by Indian Express, the chargesheet accuses Setalvad of filing petitions and applications in the name of Zakia Jafri -- wife of slain Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri -- for political and personal gains and with the intention of involving the then Chief Minister in the larger conspiracy behind the February 27, 2002 train burning incident in Godhra and the riots that followed.
