Saturday saw the Supreme Court constitute two separate Benches, one after the other, to hear a plea by activist Teesta Setalvad for interim protection from arrest, sending a strong signal that questions of personal liberty cannot wait after the weekend.
A Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and P.K. Mishra heard the case first on Saturday evening, but could not reach a decision. The case was referred to a larger Bench. The Chief Justice of India did not wait for another day, and promptly constituted a three-judge Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna and Dipankar Datta to hear Ms. Setalvad’s petition the same night.
Justice Gavai, when lawyers apologised for “disturbing” them on a Saturday, said “we still have Sunday to read up cases scheduled for Monday [July 3]”. Monday is the first working day after the summer vacation and Justice Gavai’s Bench has 67 cases listed before it.
