SC rejects Madhu Koda’s plea for stay of conviction in coal scam case
A bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar rejected Madhu Koda's plea challenging the Delhi High Court order.
The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed for one week the Gujarat High Court order denying regular bail to social activist Teesta Setalvad, accused of conspiring and forging material to allege inaction by the State machinery at the top echelon to curb and control the riots that had engulfed the State after the burning of a coach of Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway Station in which 59 people died in 2002.
A three-judge bench comprising Justice BR Gavai, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Dipankar Datta also questioned the “alarming urgency” that the single judge of the high court who pronounced the order today in the morning (a working Saturday for the Gujarat High Court) not to grant even a day’s time to Teesta Setalvad to move the Supreme Court against its order rejecting her plea for regular bail.
Taking a dim view of the High Court court order denying Teesta Setalvad bail and asking her to surrender immediately, the top court today said it should not have been lost that she was on interim bail granted by the top court on September 2, 20223.
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Heading the bench, Justice Gavai questioned the “alarming urgency” that the single judge denied Teesta Setalvad a week’s time to appeal against the order rejecting her plea for regular bail.
“Was the single judge justified in not granting time to Teesta to appeal against the rejection of regular bail”, and “In our opinion the single judge was totally wrong in not giving (her) interim protection,” the bench observed in the course of the special hearing held at 9.15 PM.
The three-judge bench assembled after earlier in the evening a two-judge bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra differed on the grant of relief to Teesta Setalvad.
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