The uncertainty surrounding the Supreme Court’s extension of protection from arrest of social activist, Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand will be cleared tomorrow, 14 October, as the matter has been listed before justices Anil R Dave, Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla and V Gopala Gowda at 2 pm in court 3.

The bench is scheduled to hear the matter until 2.55 p.m.

As the current protection from arrest of the activist couple expires on 15 October, it is expected that the bench will pronounce its order tomorrow after the hearing is over.

On 12 October, Justice Dave described his own extension of protection last month, as a mistake, as it was listed before a two-judge bench, instead of a three-judge bench, as referred by Justice Dipak Misra in March.

Dave’s refusal to extend protection from arrest to the couple on 12 October, on the technical ground of the registry’s failure to list the matter before the appropriate bench, was curious because Dave was heard telling the couple’s counsel, Kapil Sibal, that the matter was serious.

Dave said that he could not agree with Sibal, even if he had himself granted a similar extension last month, and even if the opposite party, the State of Gujarat had no reservations to such extension.

Tomorrow’s hearing, therefore, assumes significance in view of Dave’s earlier refusal, and whether as the head of the three-judge bench, he could tilt the scales against such repeated extension of protection from arrest of the accused, whose plea for anticipatory bail was been rejected by the Gujarat High Court earlier.

Photo by Jaffar Theekkathir