NEW DELHI: Convicting M V Jayarajan, CPI (M) state panel member and former MLA for his derogatory remarks against a High Court judge, was not correct, said Press Council chairman and Supreme Court former judge Justice Markandeya Katju.
Katju posted in his Facebook page, that “In my opinion this judgment is incorrect, totally unacceptable in a democracy, and violates the freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.
In a democracy the people are supreme and all authorities, whether President or Prime Minister of India, other ministers, judges, legislators, bureaucrats, police, army and so on are servants of the people. Since the people are the masters and judges their servants, the people have a right to criticise judges just as a master has the right to criticise his servant.
Why should Indian judges be so touchy? When the House of Lords delivered the judgment in the 1987 Spycatcher case, a prominent newspaper published as its headline “You Fools”.
Fali Nariman, the eminent Indian lawyer, was in London at that time and he asked Lord Templeman who had delivered the majority judgment why the judges did not take action for contempt of court. Lord Templeman smiled, and said that judges in England do not take notice of such comments.
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