The Supreme Court on Monday declined to list former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal’s appeal against his conviction and 10-year jail term in the 2013 sexual assault case for hearing without first deciding whether he should be required to surrender.
The court held that his plea for exemption from surrender must be considered before the appeal can be listed on merits.
The provisions, he argued, makes surrender a mandatory pre-condition for listing a criminal appeal. The order records that Mehta nevertheless fairly conceded that the Supreme Court has the power to dispense with the requirement of surrender. The judge noted that Sibal had not addressed the court on the merits of Tejpal’s application seeking exemption from surrender. Sibal had opposed the submission, arguing that the Bombay High Court at Goa had granted Tejpal four weeks to surrender while declining to stay his conviction. It granted him four weeks to surrender.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Goa government, had opposed listing the appeal without first deciding the surrender issue, relying on the pertinent provisions of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013. The court referred to an earlier judgment holding that a corresponding provision under the repealed 1966 Supreme Court Rules was mandatory. He had urged the Supreme Court to hear the appeal on August 31, arguing that Tejpal remained protected by the high court’s order. The high court, on August 6, overturned Tejpal’s 2021 acquittal and convicted him of two counts of aggravated rape, sentencing him to 10 years’ imprisonment and imposing a fine.
He therefore granted counsel an opportunity to make submissions on the application and listed it for consideration on August 25. He is therefore required to surrender in the first week of September.
“Therefore, until and unless, suitable orders are passed on the application seeking exemption from surrender, the appeal cannot be listed before the court,” said justice Aradhe. Earlier in the day, Mehta had told the court that Tejpal must either surrender or secure an exemption from surrender before pursuing his appeal against the conviction and sentence.
