New Delhi: The Supreme Court late Saturday night protected social activist Teesta Setalvad from arrest and stayed for a week the Gujarat High Court order rejecting her plea for regular bail and asking her to surrender immediately in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riot cases.
In a special late-night hearing, a bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and Dipankar Datta questioned the denial of time to Setalvad to appeal against the HC order, saying even an ordinary criminal is entitled to some form of interim relief.
The three-judge bench heard the matter in a special sitting after a two-judge vacation bench differed on granting interim protection from arrest to Setalvad.
“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 bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra said earlier in the evening.
Setalvad approached the apex court for relief soon after the Gujarat High Court rejected her regular bail plea.
Justice Nirzar Desai directed her to surrender immediately as she is out of jail after having secured 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 instituted litigations without any basis and made witnesses file false affidavits before various forums including the Supreme Court with the intention to “implicate innocent persons and to unsettle the government and with an intention to tarnish the image of the then Hon’ble Chief Minister and thereby to send him to jail and compel him to resign”, the high court said.
Showing her any leniency will encourage people to openly help an entity fulfil its agenda in an illegal and unlawful manner by playing with the sentiments of the community and changing the mindset of people in order to see to it that a particular political party gets sufficient swing in their favour, it said.
“Prima facie, this court is of the view that, today, if the applicant like this is enlarged on bail, that will deepen and widen the communal polarisation,” the high court observed.
The court is also of prima facie view that Setalvad - a “very influential person” - can go to any extent to achieve her agenda as she did in the past “by influencing the witnesses and by aggressively propagating against government and its machinery as well as the then chief minister”, the HC said.
The accused also showed courage in the past “to threaten the witnesses, tamper with the evidence and influence the people”, 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.
The Supreme Court is closed for the summer vacation and will reopen on Monday.