New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Rajasthan government seeking its response to a plea filed by self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, challenging the Rajasthan High Court's decision to uphold his conviction for sexually assaulting a minor devotee in Jodhpur in 2013.A bench of justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu made it clear that the bench was not inclined to grant bail without hearing the state or unless Asaram's health condition clearly warrants release on medical grounds."We are not granting bail now. Subject to hearing the state, we will consider if there is grave necessity to grant bail, like (if his health condition is such that) his life is in danger. But we are issuing notice in the SLP (special leave petition)," the bench said, adding that "we have to consider it (the plea)".The case pertains to allegations that a devotee of Asaram, then a minor, had been wrongfully confined in his thatched house at his ashram in Jodhpur's Manai in August 2013 and subjected to penetrative sexual assault and criminal intimidation.In 2018, a trial court in Jodhpur convicted Asaram and two co-accused. Aggrieved, they filed an appeal in the Rajasthan HC. In May, this year HC upheld Asaram's conviction for rape and related offences. However, HC found that the ingredients of criminal conspiracy and gang-rape were not made out. Therefore, it acquitted Asaram and the two co-accused of those offences. This led to the appeal before SC.