The Supreme Court on Thursday wondered why the Gujarat High Court has listed the bail plea of activist Teesta Setalvad for hearing on September 19, six weeks after it sent a notice to the State Government seeking a response to her application, and asked the State to inform it by 2 pm on Friday about whether such a precedent existed there.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justices Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia posted the plea of Setalvad for further hearing on Friday.
“We will hear this case tomorrow at 2 pm. Give us instances where a lady accused in such cases has got such dates from high court. Either this lady has been made an exception....How can the court give this date? Is this standard practice in Gujarat?” an apparently displeased CJI said.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal argued that her arrest was happened just a day after the Supreme Court verdict and said that these are against the criminal procedures. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the bail petition vehemently. Setalvad was arrested on June 25 for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame "innocent people" in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. The Gujarat High Court had on August 3 issued a notice to the State Government on the bail plea of Setalvad and fixed the matter for hearing on September 19.
An Ahmedabad sessions court had on July 30 rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and former Director General of Police RB Sreekumar in the case, saying that if they were released, it will send a message to wrongdoers that a person can level allegations with impunity and get away with it.
Mumbai-based Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested within a couple of days after the Supreme Court on June 24 dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri was killed during the riots in Ahmedabad, challenging the SIT's clean chit to 64 people in the riots, including the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.