'No reason to deny bail': Supreme Court on Teesta Setalvad case

"She is a lady. How did the high court issue a notice returnable after six weeks? Is that the standard practice in Gujarat High Court? And give us instances, where a lady is involved in a case like this and the High Court, has made it [notice on bail plea] returnable by six weeks," said Chief Justice UU Lalit.

Besides the Chief Justice, the bench included Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia.

CJI UU Lalit also observed that there is "no offence in this case over which bail cannot be granted", that too to a woman.

Setalvad has been in jail for more than two months and yet no chargesheet has been filed, the judges said.

Stating that the FIR filed against the petitioner does not say much apart from the observations made by the apex court, the bench said the Gujarat High Court, while issuing notice on Setalvad's bail plea on August 3, granted a long adjournment.

Teesta Setalvad has been in custody since June 25 over allegations that she used fake documents to file cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.

"There is no offence in this case that comes with a rider that bail cannot be granted, like Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Prevention of Terrorism Act. These are normal offences and a lady is entitled to favourable treatment," the Chief Justice said.

Setalvad was arrested in Mumbai by Gujarat Police's Anti Terror Squad, a day after the Supreme Court dismissed her client Zakia Jafri's petition that challenged the Special Investigation Team (SIT) giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat during the Gujarat riots.

The court will take up Setalvad's bail plea again on Friday at 2 pm.