By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, July 20, 2023: Social activists in India say the Supreme Court granting bail to Teesta Setalvad has restored people’s faith in the country’s legal system.

“With the relief to activist Teesta from the Supreme Court, our faith in the legal system is being gradually restored,” says Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national convener of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group.

Jesuit social scientist Father Cedric Prakash hails the verdict as “indeed a triumph of and for Truth and Justice.”

Food rights activist Irudhaya Jothi, another Jesuit, wants the same treatment in thousands of false cases pending in the Indian courts.

On July 19, Justices B R Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta of the apex court set aside the Gujarat High Court order rejecting Setalvad’s plea for regular bail in a case of alleged fabrication of documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 post-Godhra riot cases in the western Indian state.

The apex termed as “perverse” and “contradictory” the Gujarat High Court’s July 1 order denying Setalvad’s bail and asking her to “surrender immediately.”

The apex court, which had temporarily stayed the high court order, observed that the police filed the charge sheet against Setalvad, eliminating the necessity for custodial interrogation.

Father Jothi says he is happy to see a court with heart.

“If such a treatment was given to the 16 jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case, Jesuit Father Stan Swamy would have survived the custodial death,” says the Jesuit, who works in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram.

Sister Fernandes, a social activist working in Patna, eastern India, since 1997 with communities on the periphery, says the Chief Justice of India has raised hope in every Indian.

She says activists in India await justice for “many innocent” people arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) such as Sanjay Kumar, who is languishing in jail, and R B Sreekumar, former Gujarat police chief out on bail, in the riots case.

“Who will pay the price of the many years of life lost in jails? What action should be taken against those who jailed them on false cases?” asks the nun.

She wants such people be punished so that they “get a teste of being in jails. Only then will there be true justice.”

Father Prakash says the apex court says “a lot” when it terms the Gujarat High Court verdict as perverse and contradictory. “Now one needs to ensure that the cause of justice is served at every level,” asserted the Jesuit, a trustee of the Citizens for Justice and Peace, Setalvad’s NGO, since its inception

During the hearing in the Supreme Court, Justice BR Gavai questioned the motives and timing of Setalvad’s arrest: “What were you doing till 2022? What investigation have you done from June 24 and June 25 that you decided she has done something so heinous as to warrant her arrest?” he asked.

Justice Gavai pointed out that if the authorities’ contentions were to be accepted, the Definition of Evidence Act would be rendered moot.

“Definition of Evidence Act would have to be thrown in the dustbin if your contention has to be accepted. We’re only putting you on guard that if you delve more into it, we will have to make observations…” the court told the prosecutor.

Echoing the sentiment, Justice Datta criticized the notion of holding someone in custody until a verdict is pronounced.

“Initially, we were feeling that there was a case under [Section] 194. Now we think the case under Section 194 is suspect. And you want someone to be undertrial and in custody, till verdict is pronounced,” he said.

Setalvad’s legal battles began in 2022. She was arrested in June 2022 along with Sreekumar and Bhatt for allegedly using her close associates and riot victims to file “false and fabricated affidavits before the Supreme Court with a view to unseat the establishment and to tarnish the image of the establishment and the then chief minister.”

The apex court has protected Setalvad from arrest since July 1, putting the high court order on hold.

Setalvad was arrested just two days after the court dismissed a plea by her and Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri, a former Member of Parliament, was killed in the 2002 riots. They had challenged a probe that cleared Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister at the time of the riots, of any wrongdoing.

Setalvad was released from jail in September 2-22 after she received interim bail from the Supreme Court.