Supreme Court Allows Teesta Setalvad To Attend Film Festival In Amsterdam

Teesta Setalvad moved top court again for seeking permission to travel abroad after she was allowed to travel to Malaysia in August

The top court also directed her to furnish a detailed undertaking about her travel plans and also ordered that she should return her passport when she comes back to India post attending the conference.

Source : PTI File Photo

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed an application moved by activist Teesta Setalvad to travel to Amsterdam between November 14 and November 24 to attend the International Documentary Film Festival where her documentary film is being awarded.

Setalvad moved to the top court again seeking permission to travel abroad after she was allowed to travel to Malaysia in August. She informed the court that she has been invited by the organisers to attend the International Documentary Film Festival in her capacity as producer of the documentary film Cycle Mahesh.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan allowed her to travel to Amsterdam today.

Teesta Setalvad is currently out on bail in connection with a criminal case involving allegations of a conspiracy to malign the State of Gujarat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was then the Gujarat CM, for their handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Setalvad, informed the court today that she filed an application seeking permission to travel abroad.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government, did not object to her application this time. In August, Mehta told the court that if she is allowed to travel abroad, conditions should be imposed so that her return to India is also assured. SG Mehta had further expressed apprehensions over the "real purpose" of her visit to Malaysia and said that terror accused fugitive Zakir Naik also stays there.

The bench allowed her saying that the same conditions, as the ones imposed in August, would apply on Setalvad when her plea to travel to Malaysia was allowed. 

In August, the Supreme Court allowed activist Teesta Setalvad to travel abroad to attend an anti-racism conference on a surety of Rs 10 lakh. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan heard her petition today where the activist was seeking a relaxation of this bail condition to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from August 31 to September 10 to attend an anti-racism conference.

The top court also directed her to furnish a detailed undertaking about her travel plans and also ordered that she should return her passport when she comes back to India post attending the conference.

In July 2023, the apex court had granted bail to Setalvad, after she challenged the Gujarat High Court verdict denying her bail. While granting bail to Setalvad, the Supreme Court directed her to surrender her passport as a condition for bail.