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Teesta Setalvad Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated October 16, 2026 • 3 min read

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Quick Info

Date of birth9 February 1962

Age62 Years

BirthplaceBombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India

ProfessionJournalist, Civil Rights Activist

NationalityIndian

Marital statusMarried

SpouseJaved Anand

Teesta Setalvad Biography

Teesta Setalvad is an Indian journalist and civil rights activist from Mumbai. Born in 1962, she has spent much of her career documenting and litigating on

Early life and background

Teesta Atul Setalvad was born on 9 February 1962 in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra. She grew up in Mumbai and later attended Elphinstone College at the University of Mumbai, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with honours. She is of Indian nationality and identified with the Parsi community in available records.

Career

Setalvad built a public profile as a journalist and a rights activist, concentrating on communal violence and legal redress for victims. Over the years she became particularly known for filing litigation related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, pursuing accountability through the courts and through civil-society work.

Her activist and journalistic work has been recognised with multiple awards from Indian and international bodies. Among these are the Journalism for Human Rights Award from the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (1993), the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson (1993), and the Pax Christi International Peace Award (2001). She received the Padma Shri for Public Affairs from the Government of India in 2007. Other honours listed in her career include human rights and public service awards conferred between the 1990s and 2000s by a range of organisations.

Setalvad has been linked to non-governmental organisations through which she carried out advocacy and documentation work. Her activities have included litigation support, public campaigns, and efforts to preserve the memory of riot victims.

Public profile

Setalvad’s public life has been shaped by both recognition and controversy. Her legal activism around the Gujarat riots drew sustained attention from the media, the courts, and investigative bodies. Her role in presenting evidence and pursuing cases in court has been challenged at times by judicial findings and by law-enforcement inquiries, and several disputes and allegations have been publicly recorded.

Allegations and legal actions documented in the record include claims about the handling of witness testimony in specific trials, disputed factual assertions presented to courts, and questions about fundraising and foreign funding compliance for organisations she was associated with. Authorities have at times investigated the acceptance of foreign grants by an organisation linked to her, and those proceedings included suspension and eventual cancellation of regulatory registration after an official inspection.

Setalvad and organisations she helped run have also faced accusations from residents and associates over financial matters, and there have been criminal complaints alleging assorted offences including the filing or fabrication of documents. Some of these matters led to arrests, court hearings, interim and regular bail orders, and detailed scrutiny by Indian courts up to the Supreme Court.

Throughout these contested episodes, courts and official statements have both criticised aspects of the litigation strategy and left other questions to be resolved through further legal process. Setalvad has responded to many of the allegations by denying wrongdoing and defending the intentions of her legal and advocacy work.

Personal life

Teesta Setalvad is married to journalist and social activist Javed Anand. The two have been partners in both life and some of their civil-society initiatives. Public records list her hometown as Mumbai and her religious and ethnic background as Parsi/Zoroastrian in available sources. Her listed hobby is reading.

Latest updates

In recent years, Setalvad was involved in high-profile legal proceedings connected to allegations about documents and litigation arising from the 2002 Gujarat riots. She faced arrest and prosecution under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code in one such case, and her detention and bail applications were heard by courts including the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted interim and later regular bail in 2023 in relation to those proceedings.

As of the most recent public records in this excerpt, several investigations, prosecutions, and appeals remain part of the public record surrounding her activism and litigation. Her work and the controversies around it have continued to attract media, judicial, and public attention.

Editorial Review and Sources

This F4U profile is written from publicly available career and profile information, then reviewed for clarity before publication. If you spot an outdated detail about Teesta Setalvad, send the page URL and a reliable correction source to f4udotin@gmail.com.

Reference context: StarsUnfolded

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Recent Work

Litigation and advocacy on the 2002 Gujarat riots

Filed and supported multiple legal cases and public-interest actions related to accountability for communal violence

2000s–2020s
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Career Highlights

  1. Longstanding work as a journalist and civil rights activist focusing on communal violence and victims’ rights
  2. Recipient of multiple national and international awards including the Padma Shri (2007)
  3. Founder and leader of civil-society initiatives involved in litigation and documentation related to the 2002 Gujarat riots
Reviewed by F4U Editorial Desk

F4U profile pages are prepared from public career information, checked for readability, and updated when reliable correction sources are shared with the editorial team.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When was Teesta Setalvad born?

Teesta Setalvad was born on 9 February 1962.

What is Teesta Setalvad known for?

Teesta Setalvad is known for journalist, Civil Rights Activist.

What is Teesta Setalvad’s marital status?

Teesta Setalvad's marital status is listed as Married.

Who is Teesta Setalvad married to?

Teesta Setalvad is publicly listed as married to Javed Anand.