Supreme Court on Saturday granted interim protection to activist Teesta Setalvad by staying for seven days the order of the Gujarat High Court asking her to "surrender immediately". In a special sitting, a three-judge bench of Supreme Court judge Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing the matter.
Senior advocate CU Singh, showing up for Setalvad, let High Court know that she was granted interim bail by the High Court on September 22 last year and she hasn't violated any bail conditions.
“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?" asked Supreme Court.
The Gujarat government's Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta was asked by the Supreme Court why a person who had been out for so long should not be given seven days to challenge their bail.
SG said, “There is something more than what 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."
According to SG, SIT (on 2002 Godhra riots matter) was comprised by High Court and it has recorded periodical reports. The witnesses informed the SIT that they do not know the contents, and Setalvad provided them with statements stating that she concentrated on a specific area, which was found to be false. According to SG, Setalvad tutored witnesses and provided false affidavits.
SC refers Setalvad's bail request to larger bench
Earlier, "after having heard this Special Leave Petition for some time, we are unable to agree while deciding the prayer for interim relief. Therefore, it will be appropriate if, under the orders of the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India, this petition is placed before the appropriate larger Bench."
"The Registrar (Judicial) is directed to place this order immediately before the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India," the two-judge seat of Judges Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra expressed before at night.
Earlier, the apex court refferred social activist Teesta Setalvad's bail plea to a larger CJI-led bench after the two judges varied with regards to this issue.
Teesta Setalvad, a social activist, filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Saturday after the Gujarat High Court denied her bail in a case involving the alleged fabrication of documents related to the 2002 post-Godhra riot cases.
Gujarat HC tells Teesta Setalvad to 'surrender immediately'
The activist Teesta Setalvad was given an order to "surrender immediately" by the Gujarat High Court on Saturday in connection with the alleged fabrication of evidence and tutoring of witnesses in cases involving the Gujarat riots in 2002.
Her bail request was also denied by the court. She has not yet been arrested as a result of the interim bail that was granted to her by the Supreme Court in September of last year.
Setalvad's lawyer also asked the Gujarat High Court to deny Setalvad's request to appeal the order.
Justice Nirzar Desai's court denied Setalvad's bail request and ordered her to surrender right away because she had already been released on interim bail.
As the candidate is out on interim bail conceded by the High Court, she is coordinated to give up right away, the court said in its order.
In addition, the court denied Setalvad's request for a 30-day stay of the order following its announcement. A comprehensive order is expected.
Setalvad, former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar, and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt were all taken into custody on June 25 of last year as part of an Ahmedabad crime branch police charge for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame "innocent people" in the cases that followed the Godhra riots.
On July 30, 2022, an Ahmedabad sessions court denied the bail applications of Setalvad and Sreekumar in the case. The court said that releasing them would show other people that they can make false accusations and get away with it.
The High Court had, on August 3, 2022, given a notification to the state government on the bail supplication of Setalvad and fixed the matter for hearing on September 19.
In the meantime, after the high court declined to consider her request for interim bail, she applied for it at the Supreme Court (SC).
On September 2 of last year, the Supreme Court granted her interim bail and requested that she surrender her passport to the trial court until the Gujarat High Court resolved her regular bail plea.
The top court additionally requested that she help out the probe agency in the investigation of the case.
On September 3, Setalvad walked out of jail. The argument against Setalvad and two others were enrolled days after the June 24 decision of the High Court in the Zakia Jafri case.
While dismissing the petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the mobs, the SC observed that “it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.”
The Supreme Court had stated that all parties involved in such an abuse of process "need to be in the dock and proceed in accordance with the law."
The torching of a Sabarmati Express coach by a crowd near Godhra station on February 27, 2002, sparked the riots in Gujarat.
Also Read | Why do you want activist Teesta Setalvad, her husband back in jail? Supreme Court asks CBI, Gujarat
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