Lawyers appearing before the Madhya Pradesh High Court disclosed that the Supreme Court had placed a stay on trial proceedings in the Twisha Sharma death matter, while a bail application pending before the High Court would continue and was directed to reach a conclusion within a fortnight.

Giribala Singh's legal representative, Senior Advocate Surendra Singh, informed the High Court that a transfer petition regarding the matter had already been filed before the Supreme Court. Proceedings before the Bhopal Sessions Court have been placed on hold by the Supreme Court, with no resumption date yet set. The bail application, however, falls outside the scope of that stay on proceedings.

Counsel indicated to Justice Ajay Kumar Nirankari that the bail hearing could move forward, with the matter anticipated to conclude within a fortnight under the timeline set by the Supreme Court. The High Court set 26 October 2026 at 10:30 am as its next date for continued arguments.

Separately, the Supreme Court dispatched notices to the CBI, Twisha's husband Samarth Singh, and her mother-in-law Giribala Singh in connection with a petition seeking to move the trial out of Bhopal and into a competent Delhi court. The petition was brought forward by Navnidhi Sharma, Twisha's father.

Navnidhi Sharma put forward doubts about whether proceedings in Madhya Pradesh could be conducted without prejudice. The plea states that Giribala Singh, who served as a Principal District and Sessions Judge before retiring, holds a standing that the petitioner contends could bear on how the case unfolds. Among the arguments put forward by the petitioner is a concern that testimony and documentary records could face interference before proceedings conclude.

Alongside the transfer petition still awaiting resolution, a petition requesting that the Supreme Court halt the trial in the interim was lodged through a separate filing. Giribala Singh's legal representative placed that stay order before the High Court for its consideration. Proceedings at the Sessions Court level in Bhopal remain on hold under the stay order, yet the bail application continues to be heard at the High Court.

Twisha Sharma's body was discovered at the matrimonial residence she shared with advocate Samarth Singh — son of Giribala — in the Katara Hills locality of Bhopal, roughly five months into the couple's marriage. Relatives raised questions about the circumstances of her death, with her brother — an army officer holding the rank of Major — telling authorities she had been subjected to persistent demands for a dowry of around two lakh rupees and had been denied control over her own finances.

Two days after her death, a formal complaint listing both Samarth and Giribala Singh was lodged with police. Samarth's detention came in Jabalpur on 22 May, ten days after officers had first sought to take him into custody. Acting on its own motion, the Supreme Court stepped in over concerns that a judicial officer's purported role in the matter posed a threat to public trust in the judiciary, and handed the investigation to the CBI.

Detained since 2 June, the pair face dowry death allegations brought under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. A 636-page charge document was lodged against them by the CBI that August.

A Bhopal special CBI court had turned down Singh's regular bail request the previous month, citing the investigation's sensitivity and the possibility that her release could interfere with its progress — a decision that underpins her petition before the High Court. The court noted that her long tenure on the bench as a District and Sessions Judge had built up a degree of institutional standing that left open a plausible risk of interference with witnesses or evidence.

In opposing bail, the CBI contended that she had taken steps to interfere with the investigation — contacting a CCTV technician and a salon operator, and dispatching a representative to obtain CCTV footage — and further pointed to her unwillingness to furnish a voice sample, with the agency citing call records, WhatsApp conversations, and witness statements as part of the material already in its possession.

Appearing before the special court, Singh's legal team put forward a bail application on humanitarian grounds, pointing to her health while in detention, her responsibility for a mother approaching a hundred years of age, and religious observances tied to Twisha's passing. The defence contended that Singh, drawing both a standard pension and a war widow's entitlement, had a stable income stream, which made any demand for dowry an unlikely proposition. The court did not find any of the grounds put forward sufficient to outweigh the seriousness of the allegations.

Giribala Singh appeared as a named party in the proceedings. The matter was heard before Justice Ajay Kumar Nirankari, who presided as the sole member of the bench. The proceeding is listed for 16 October 2026.