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Synopsis

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India today granted bail to Teesta Setalvad in an evidence fabrication case relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Noting that the considerations taken in the order of September 2, 2022 by the Supreme court when Setalvad was initially granted relief were still available, the bench said, 

"The fact that custodial interrogation was available for 7 days after she was arrested in June last year also does not change. She had admittedly not been called for investigation after her release. As the chargesheet has been filed, we find that custodial interrogation is not necessary. So far as concern of influencing witnesses, that can be taken care of. The appeal is allowed. The appellant is directed to be released on bail which as per the order which was ordered in September last year."

However, the bench has noted that if the prosecution feels that an attempt is made to influence the witness or any circumstance changes, an application can be moved directly before the supreme court for relief.

Notably, the impugned order of the Gujarat High Court dated July 1, 2023 has been set aside with the observation that the same was contradictory. 

"The learned judge has spend pages to observe as to how it is not necessary at the stage of grant of bail to consider if a prima facie case is made out or not. The learned judge has interestingly observed that since the petitioner has neither challenged the FIR or chargesheet , it is not permissible for her to say that a prima facie case is not made out. No doubt the gravity and seriousness of offence has to be considered. If the observation of the learned judge is to be accepted, no bail application can be accepted at a pre trial stage. To say the least, the findings are totally perverse. On the other hand, the learned judge goes on to look at statements of witnesses and say that a prima facie case is made out, which we find to be contrary", a bench of Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta has observed.

On July 5, the Supreme Court had issued notice on the bail plea filed by Setalvad and ordered for it to be listed today after ASG SV Raju, appearing for the Gujarat government, sought time to translate some documents.

"Then we will just issue notice for now, List on July 19 at 2 PM, one hour for each side to argue", the bench had recorded in its order.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Setalvad, had also told court that he would be filing a short note of submissions.

After a late-night hearing that took place at 9:15 PM on July 1st, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had stayed the Gujarat High Court's order denying bail to Setalvad and granted one week's interim relief to her.

This three-judge bench was formed after Setalvad had failed to get an immediate relief from a division bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday evening as a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra differed on the issue of grant of protection to her following the rejection of bail to her by the Gujarat High Court.

After recording the disagreement, the division bench had asked the Chief Justice of India to set up a larger bench. 

Setalvad had rushed to the top court after the High Court rejected her plea for regular bail in the matter. Acceding to her request, the top court had set up a division bench to conduct a special hearing at 6.30 pm on Saturday (July 1). However, appearing for the Gujarat government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea for grant of any relief to her.

In its impugned decision, the High Court had directed Setalvad to surrender immediately. It had also rejected her plea for 30 days time for it.The High Court also said that prima facie, it appeared that Setalvad used her close associates and riot victims to submit false and fabricated affidavits before the Supreme Court in a bid to allegedly to undermine the establishment and tarnish the image of the then Chief Minister (Narendra Modi).

An FIR was lodged against Setalvad and former senior police officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt on the basis of the Supreme Court's judgement in the case of 'Zakia Ahsan Zafri and others vs. State of Gujarat', passed on June 24, 2022.

The top court had on September 2, 2022 granted her interim bail stating that since she is a woman and has been in custody since June 26, 2022 and in light of the documents which were presented and those which are alleged against her in light of the FIR, pertain to year 2002 and going by assertions, at best, the concerned documents were sought to be presented till 2012.

Setalvad's bail plea was rejected by an Ahmedabad court on July 30. Teesta Setalvad, a co-petitioner in the plea before Supreme Court challenging “clean chit” given to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, was detained by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad on June 25, 2022.

Case Title: Teesta Atul Setalvad vs. State of Gujarat