Bombay HC Adjourns Hearing Of Appeal Against Tarun Tejpal's Acquittal As Lawyer Tests Positive For COVID-19

The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court today adjourned the hearing in Tarun Tejpal's case to December 12 after one of the lawyers said that a colleague had been tested positive for COVID-19.

Advocate Raunaq Rao, representing Tejpal, told the Division Bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice M S Jawalkar that a lawyer briefing Senior Counsel Amit Desai had tested COVID-19 positive, and requested a postponement, which was granted.

Tejpal, the former editor in chief of Tehelka magazine, who was accused of sexually assaulting his then woman colleague in the lift of a five-star hotel in Goa in November 2013, was acquitted by a Sessions Court in May this year.

The acquittal was challenged in the HC by the Goa government.

Earlier, Tejpal had sought an 'in-camera' hearing of the Goa government's appeal and sought its dismissal while raising preliminary objections on its maintainability.

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had at that time opposed Tejpal's request for the 'in-camera' hearing, saying that "the country has the right to know how the institution dealt with the girl (victim)".

With PTI inputs