Teesta Setalvad, a social activist, was granted temporary bail on Friday by the Supreme Court, who also ordered her release by Saturday. She must give her passport and cooperate with the inquiry into the Gujarat police's complaint that she had fabricated evidence in the 2002 riot cases.
Setalvad was detained in connection with the case on June 25, and on July 30, an Ahmedabad city court denied her request for bail. She then went to the Gujarat high court, which on August 3 issued a notice regarding her appeal but declined to grant her interim bail while her case was still pending in the high court. Setalvad filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging both this order and the trial court's earlier rejection of her bail request.
As it granted interim bail until the high court heard her bail request, a bench presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit stated, "In our judgement, the high court ought to have considered her application for grant of interim bail during the pendency of the issue."