Supreme Court on Wednesday extended interim protection granted to activist Teesta Setalvad until the next hearing on July 19 in a case pertaining to the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Earlier, during a special late-night hearing on July 1, the apex court granted protection to the activist from arrest and stayed an order of the Gujarat High Court until a week. The High Court on Saturday morning rejected Setalvad's plea for regular bail and asked her to "immediately surrender".
A three-judge Bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, and Dipankar Datta also issued a notice to the High Court on the appeal filed by Setalvad and questioned the court's decision. The apex court further challenged the single-judge Bench's rejection of the bail order stating "that the petitioner was a lady and as such entitled to special protection under Section 437 CrPC," according to a report by NDTV.
"We find that, taking into consideration this fact, the single judge ought to have granted at least some protection so that the petitioner has sufficient time to challenge the order passed by the single judge before this court," the three-judge Bench noted.
At the outset, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju sought time from the top court, saying he needs time to translate documents. The bench agreed to his request and posted the matter for hearing on July 19, reported PTI.
In June last year, Setalvad was arrested along with former Gujarat police chief R B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case that was registered by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in the post-Gujarat riots.
Setalvad has been out of jail on a bail granted by the Supreme Court in September last year.
