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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Nandy gets riot relief

Nandy gets riot relief

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published Published on Jan 5, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 5, 2011
The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court order that had refused to quash a criminal case slapped against political commentator Ashish Nandy for an article on the Gujarat riots.

It also issued notices to the Gujarat government on an appeal filed by Nandy against the high court order that dismissed his plea for quashing the case registered against.

The high court had asked Nandy to defend himself in a lower court in Ahmedabad where the case had been registered. The top court had in July last year restrained the state from arresting the septuagenarian columnist.

It had then criticised the state for its “intolerant” attitude towards any sort of “criticism”.

In the article, Nandy had blamed the Gujarati middle class for the hate-politics in the state.

The top court said: “Coming from the land of Mahatma Gandhi, you are so intolerant that you can’t accept any criticism…. The article is not that bad… There’s nothing in it… Why are you prosecuting him and for what? Worse things have happened in this country.”

The court restrained the state authorities from arresting him with the words: “He (Nandy) is 71. Let him have his peace.”

Daring the state government to go after any political leader, the bench observed: “He (Nandy) is a soft target…. So you catch him. Take some steps against any political leader, let’s see… even a municipal councillor.”

The bench also wondered about the antecedents of the person who had filed the complaint against Nandy. “How does it (the article) bother him? Is he a staunch nationalist? It is just an opinion of a journalist,” it said.

Nandy is facing charges of promoting enmity between different groups and making assertions prejudicial to national integration. Both offences are non-bailable and entail a punishment of three years or a fine or both.

Appearing for Nandy in the Supreme Court today, lawyer Dayan Krishnan said the high court ruling violated an earlier ruling of the apexcourt that had laid down that the test for deciding if a case under Section 123 was made out depended on whether the accused had spoken on behalf of one community and against another.

In his article, Nandy had only articulated the reasons behind the polarisation between two communities in the state, he said.

The complaint against Nandy was filed by advocate-activist V.K. Saxena, who is also the president of the Ahmedabad-based NGO National Council for Civil Liberties, which had earlier targeted Medha Patkar for opposing the Sardar Sarovar dam.


The Telegraph, 5 January, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110105/jsp/nation/story_13393842.jsp


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