Supreme Court directs Tarun Tejpal to surrender in two weeks

Justice Alok Aradhe directed Tejpal to furnish a surrender certificate, and ordered that if the certificate is filed on or before September 22, his appeal be listed on that date.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Aman Lekhi, appearing for Tejpal, argued that there was no legal requirement for an accused to surrender before his criminal appeal could be listed. Sibal also relied on the Bombay high court’s August 6 judgment, which gave Tejpal four weeks to surrender, and underlined that the case was 13 years old and that he was now a senior citizen with strong roots in society.

“There is no legal condition that he must surrender before the appeal is listed,” Sibal said, adding that there was no purpose in sending Tejpal to jail for a few days before his appeal could be taken up. “There is no point to send him to jail for five days,” he said.