PANAJI
With little over a week left for former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal to surrender and begin serving his 10-year imprisonment, the Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on his plea seeking exemption from surrender.
Tejpal has challenged the August 6 order of the High Court of Bombay at Goa reversing his acquittal in the 2013 sexual assault case and sentencing him to 10 years of rigorous jail. The High Court, while declining to stay his conviction, had granted him four weeks to surrender, taking the deadline to the first week of September.
The issue before the SC on Monday was whether Tejpal’s criminal appeal could be entertained without his first surrendering. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Goa, submitted that Tejpal had two options -- file a certificate confirming his surrender or seek an exemption from surrender.
“Existence of the appeal is dependent on either filing a certificate that he has surrendered or, alternatively, he will have to pray to Your Lordships to allow an exemption from surrendering. These are the two options,” Mehta said.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Tejpal, opposed the contention, pointing out that the High Court itself had granted him time to surrender and that order continued to operate.
Mehta maintained that the provisions governing suspension of sentence and the apex court rules operate independently, and referred to the decision in Mayuram Subramanian Srinivasan vs CBI in support of his submission.
Sibal sought listing of Tejpal’s appeal on August 31, saying he was prepared to surrender if the SC refused interim protection. “If this court says we don’t think it’s a case for bail, then I’m inside,” he said.
Justice Alok Aradhe, before whom the matter was heard, said, “This is a criminal appeal. We will pass an order on it.”
The Goa government has separately filed a Special Leave Application before the SC seeking enhancement of the sentence to life imprisonment.
