Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Contempt of court and freedom of speech

Recently Kerala high court sentenced the CPI(M) party activist M.V.Jayarajan for calling the judges as “shumbhan” which means fool, idiot in Malayalam. His diatribe was in response to the HC ruling against roadside assembly of party activists for political speeches and public address. Interestingly HC did not even suspend the ruling to give him time to appeal to SC, so that sentence was immediately implemented and Jayarajan had to spend his time in jail, till the time he could file an appeal against the ruling in Supreme Court.
Was court justified in this? Certainly if one goes by law book, a resounding yes! But if we look more closely there are some difficult political philosophical questions involved. Do we actually need to empower judiciary and parliament with such contempt proceeding powers? And won’t such powers discourage healthy criticism?
Moreover should judges not be judged? Are they bathed by milk, to quote Hindi proverb? If they are not spotless, then should they be empowered with contempt proceeding powers to silence criticism? One should not forget the rampant corruption even in the judiciary. Justice Dinakaran, Soumitra sen, Y.K.Sabarwaal, and now K.G.Balakrishnan facing the charges for favouring his son-in-law out of turn! The case against Soumitra Sen as recorded by proceedings in Rajya Sabha meant that he was corrupt since the start of his career in judiciary. How did he survive with so much corruption to this extent?
Returning back to the Jayarajan episode, the learned judges interestingly remarked Jayrajan as a “worm”. Did not the judges stoop down to the levels for school-boyish fist-fight and name calling? Agreed Jayajan’s comment would be lacking intellectual force, if any, still should he be silenced? Did his comments actually change public opinion against courts?
To sum up one should be reminded of J.S.Mill’s famous quote “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

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