When SC repeated what Prashant Bhushan said on Teesta Setalvad

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The News Minute | February 19, 2015 | 7.00 PM IST

Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and national executive member of the AAP Prashant Bhushan had written an article on Wednesday for the Times of India saying that the case against Teesta Setalvad was a case that proved that it was difficult for people to raise criticism against people occupying high positions of power.

Saying that custodial interrogation was an euphemism for torture, Bhushan said in his article that courts were not following the “simple constitutional practice” that accused persons should not always be sent to police custody for interrogation.

Merely an FIR against a person does not give the police the license to arrest him, Bhushan wrote. He added that an “arrest during investigation is justified only if the accused if not arrested may flee from justice, or he might tamper with evidence, or he has committed a heinous offence and arresting him is essential for instilling a sense of security among the community, or he is a habitual and violent offender and is likely to repeat such offences unless arrested.”

This is exactly what the Supreme Court said on Thursday when the matter came before it. Saying that “the value of freedom cannot even be compared to the stars in the sky,” the apex court said that Teesta Setalvad should not be arrested.

“Who the petitioner is, that's absolutely irrelevant, the question is whether liberty can be put on ventilator or stay in intensive care unit," the court said adding that "this isn't a case of any scam which needs custodial interrogation. This is a case of misuse of funds of NGOs."

Apart from this, Prashant Bhushan also insisted that the judges who were hearing the case had to change for it may involve a bias against the activist whose case was being heard. The case had on February 13 been heard by judges Mr. SJ Mukhopadhaya and Mr. NV Ramana. Bhushan said that the PM had attended the wedding ceremony of both of these judges’ children and, therefore, Teesta Setalvad could “reasonably apprehend a bias” in the justice delivery.

"It has been brought to my notice that Narendra Modi was an invitee of and recently attended the weddings of the children of Justices Mukhopadhaya and Ramana, who are hearing the case of Teesta Setalvad. The allegation of Teesta in this case is that she is being hounded by Gujarat Police since she had played a leading role in exposing the role of Modi in the Gujarat carnage of 2002 and is seeking accountability for it. In these circumstances, the question has arisen whether it would be appropriate for these judges to hear this case," NDTV had reported Bhushan as saying.

Without even the two said judges asking for rescuing themselves from hearing the case, the Chief Justice of India Mr. HL Dattu assigned the case to a bench comprising of judges Mr. Dipak Misra and Mr. Adarsh Goel.