New Delhi, March 23: A woman “educationist” who had hurled a shoe at a Supreme Court judge got bail today along with three colleagues after another judge objected to the summary punishment they had been awarded.

All four had been sentenced to three months in jail by Justice Arijit Pasayat after he had ducked out of the shoe’s flight path on Friday. His fellow judge on the bench, Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly, however, later expressed dissent saying the on-the-spot sentencing amounted to bypassing due legal process.

A three-judge bench to which the matter was referred heard the case for a short while and granted bail to all four women, who will be freed after furnishing personal bonds.

The women had been ushered under heavy security into a courtroom packed with curious spectators, eager to see if the quartet would be appearing barefoot. They were well shod.

Justice Ganguly had observed that the women had used intemperate and offensive language at Friday’s hearing, and that the action of throwing a shoe was “unfortunate”.

But, he said, that did not mean the court could hand out immediate sentences, bypassing all norms of natural justice.

Justice Ganguly said the accused would first have to be informed of the charges in writing and then given an opportunity to defend themselves. Evidence must be presented, and only then the verdict and sentence can be passed.

One of the quartet — Leila David, 75, Annete Kotian, 23, Sarita Parikh, 31, and Pavithra Murali, 23 — had thrown the shoe during the hearing of a contempt petition against them.

The four staff members of Mumbai’s controversial Boss School of Music — each said to be “highly educated” — had repeatedly ignored court warnings not to make wild allegations against the Maharashtra government and Bombay High Court judges for closing their school down.

They had demanded that the Supreme Court “hang the CM of the state and 12 judges of Bombay High Court”, and had been abusing and hectoring the apex court judges for not doing so.

The high court had shut the school after complaints from parents that students were being “brainwashed” and not being allowed to go home.

The high court had also directed psychiatric treatment of all staff members of the school.