A three judges bench of the Supreme Court opened late night yesterday and granted bail to social activist Testa Setalwad. The bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Dipankar Datta set at 9:15 pm in the night on 01st July, 2023.

Testa had challenged the order of the Gujarat High Court whereby the High Court directed her to surrender immediately and canceled her bail. The Supreme Court stayed the order of the Gujarat High Court.

The order of the Supreme Court says that "We find that ... the learned single judge (of High Court) ought to have granted at least some protection as that the petitioner has sufficient time to challenge the order ... before this Court. In that view of the matter ... we grant stay ... for one week. Registry to obtain orders from the CJI for listing before an appropriate bench,"

The order reads as under:-

5. We are not inclined to go into the merits of the matter. At this stage, we are only concerned with that part of the order wherein the request made by the petitioner for stay of the order for a period of one month was rejected.

6. In ordinary circumstances, we would not have considered such a request. However, it is to be noted that after the FIR was registered against the petitioner on 25.06.2022 and the petitioner was arrested, this Court considering the application for grant of interim bail had granted the same on certain conditions, vide order dated 02.09.2022.

7. One of the factors that weighed with this Court was that the petitioner was a lady and as such entitled to special protection under Section 437 Cr.P.C.

8. We find that, taking into consideration this fact, the learned Single Judge ought to have granted at least some protection so that the petitioner has sufficient time to challenge the order passed by the learned Single Judge before this Court.

9. 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.

Case Details:- D.No. 25725/2023

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