‘Will skies fall if interim protection is granted for one week?’, asked the three judge bench, which assembled after a split in a two-judge bench.
The Supreme Court at a special sitting on Saturday night granted interim relief to social activist Teesta Setalvad in connection with an FIR lodged against her by Gujarat police for allegedly fabricating documents to implicate high government functionaries in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots. While staying the Gujarat High Court’s order which dismissed her bail application and directed Setalvad to immediately surrender, the 3-judge bench took note of the earlier order passed by the Supreme Court in September 2022 which granted her interim bail.
The bench noted that while passing the September 2022 order, the earlier bench led by the then CJI UU Lalit had taken into account the fact that the petitioner was a lady who was entitled to special protection under Section 437 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Taking this factor into consideration, the bench opined, the single bench of the High Court ought to have granted some protection to the petitioner so that she can challenge the order before the Supreme Court. The bench directed that the High Court’s order be stayed for a week. While doing so, the bench clarified that it has not gone into the merits of the matter and was only concerned with the High Court’s rejection of interim relief.
“In that view of the matter, without considering anything on merits of the matter, finding that the learned Single Judge was not correct in granting even some protection, we grant stay of the impugned order passed by the High Court for a period of one week from today”,observed the bench.