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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Anti-Contempt sentiment strengthens in Kerala

Anti-Contempt sentiment strengthens in Kerala

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published Published on Nov 11, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 11, 2011

-The Pioneer

 

The imprisonment of top CPI(M) leader MV Jayarajan for six months by the Kerala High Court the other day for calling two judges nincompoops has led to reopening of debates in the State on the limits of the Judiciary’s authority to use the sword of contempt of court provisions against those who criticize it and its verdicts.

A large section of lawyers in Kerala now wants the judges to stop being touchy about name-calling and sharp criticisms in the name of the verdicts they pronounce. They are also calling for total scrapping of the contempt of court provisions or limiting its usage to situations of extreme inevitability.

The progress of the Jayarajan case, his imprisonment and the court’s refusal to suspend the punishment to grant him the opportunity to file appeal have generated a feeling in the Kerala society that the judges had decided the outcome of the trial even before it had begun. Even the BJP, arch enemies of the CPI(M), suspected vengeance behind the act of the court.

Though the State Congress, true to its tendency of finding fault with anything the Marxists do, has adopted an official position that Jayarajan has got the punishment he deserves, many of its top leaders are sore at the sentence awarded to him in the name of contempt of court and the rejection of his plea for suspension of punishment.

Legal experts like K Jayasankar and Sebastian Paul are of the opinion that it is high time the courts – specifically judges – understood the changes that have occurred in the political system and society. They hold that courts are not above criticism like the other pillars of the Indian democratic system.

Lawyers say that sentences like the one in the Jayarajan case would in fact bring disrepute to the Judiciary instead of ensuring its integrity. “Jayarajan had called the judges nincompoops (Sumbhan). He should have avoided that. But how different are the judges from him when they call him an insect or worm in their own judgement?” asked a leading lawyer of the High Court.

The controversial comment of by Jayarajan, a State committee member of the CPI(M), had come in the context of the June 23, 2010 verdict of a High Court division bench banning meetings and public programmes on the roadsides, which was sure to enrage parties in a state like Kerala where all political struggles had been staged at public places throughout history.

Reacting to the court order, Jayarajan said in Kannur on June 26, 2010, “Some nincompoops (Sumbhan in Malayalam), sitting in judges’ chairs, are formulating laws instead of doing their actual job of interpreting them…. We are now in a situation where a verdict of two judges is not even given “the value of grass” by the people of Kerala.” he said.

A three-judge bench on October 12, 2010 decided to initiate contempt proceedings against him over this speech. The court had on June 10 last chargesheeted him. At one stage of the trial, the court even asked a witness whether he was afraid of the CPI(M) inviting the allegation that the judges were being prejudicial to Jayarajan and his party.

Critics of the contempt provisions say that the very idea is a leftover of the British rule but British courts themselves have learned to neglect derogatory remarks against them. Senior lawyer K Ramkumar recalls how the British judiciary had avoided contempt proceedings when judges were addressed as “You Fools” by The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1987.

“The Kerala High Court had ended the custom of judges following their silver staffs into their chambers sometime back. I feel that this is not enough. They need to democratize more. Giving up the sword of contempt provisions would be one way of doing it. It would bring them closer to the people and make them more pious,” said a leading lawyer of the High Court.

The Pioneer, 10 November, 2011, http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/kochi/19383-anti-contempt-sentiment-strengthens-in-kerala.html


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