SC Refers Teesta Setalvad’s Anticipatory Bail Plea To Larger Bench

19 March, New Delhi

The Supreme Court Thursday referred Teesta Setalvad’s anticipatory bail plea to a larger bench.

The case against Setalvad pertains to an alleged fund embezzlement case. The Court also extended the interim protection against arrest of Teesta Setalvad and her husband till the larger bench takes up the matter.

While referring the matter to a larger bench, a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Adarsh Kumar Goel said that the matter raises several issues pertaining to concept of liberty in view of the offences enumerated in the case.

The bench also said that among the issues that needed to be discussed included supremacy of law, value of liberty, concept of regulated liberty, anticipatory bail and issue of non-cooperation during investigation by the accused.

The two-judge bench had on the 19th of last month, reserved its order in the anticipatory bail plea of Setalvad and her husband who had challenged the Gujarat High Court order denying them the relief. The High Court in its judgment had observed that the couple was not cooperating in the probe.

The Gujarat government had said that Setalvad and her husband, Javed Anand, must be arrested to enable an investigation into allegations that they misused funds for a museum at Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg Society that was devastated in the 2002 riots.