Supreme Court Permits Teesta Setalvad To Travel To Amsterdam For International Documentary Film Festival

The Supreme Court today (on October 22) permitted human rights activist Teesta Setalvad to travel to Amsterdam for the upcoming world premier of her documentary "CycleMahesh."

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (for Teestva) briefly submitted that her passport needed to be released for 30 days for her to apply for a Schengen visa to travel to the Netherlands for 10 days from November 14-24.

She has received an invitation from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam to attend the festival in her capacity as Producer of the documentary film "CycleMahesh" which will have its World Premiere in the Envision Competition of the Festival.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta (for Gujarat Government)said: "I want to but I can't object. I have experience of what she has done with one State and how things have happened."

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and KV Viswanathan passed the order on the same conditions as stated in the August 2024 order. In August, the same bench granted permission to visit Malaysia to attend an anti-racism conference subject to two conditions. First, an undertaking to be filed by her stating that Setalvad will return after the aforesaid period. Second, a solvent security of Rs 10 lakh is also required. Apart from this, the passport shall be returned after the conference ends.