The Hindu : SC stays HC order on contempt plea against Editor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 23, 2002

National

National

SC stays HC order on contempt plea against Editor
By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 22. The Supreme Court today stayed an order of the Kerala High Court holding the Chief Editor of `Mathurubhoomi', Malayalam daily, and two others, guilty of contempt of court and directing them to publish apologies in the front page of the newspaper.

A Bench comprising Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Justice Brajesh Kumar granted the stay while admitting an appeal from the Chief Editor, N. Gopalakrishnan, the Managing Editor, P.V. Chandran and the Chief Correspondent, Vechoochira Madu challenging the High Court order dated December 13 last.

The High Court held them guilty of the contempt charges framed against them on the basis of a news item published in the daily on November 28, 2000 on the surrender of one of the prime accused in the `Kalluvathukkal hooch tragedy' before a Magistrate and imposed the punishment of publishing the apologies in lieu of awarding sentence.

Contempt proceedings were initiated in the High Court at the instance of two lawyers on the basis of the said news item on the ground that it contained criticism of the judicial system and judicial officer thereby bringing the administration of justice into ridicule.

During the course of hearing of the contempt case, Mr. Gopalakrishnan, who had sustained injuries in a road accident, was produced in the court in a stretcher on November 9 last and after this incident was widely published in the print and electronic media in the State, Justice Krishna Iyer wrote a personal letter to one of the Judges hearing the case, Justice Mohan Kumar, expressing unhappiness over the episode.

Twentythree eminent personalities including former Apex Court Judges, Justice Krishna Iyer, Justice Balakrishna Eradi, Mr. N. Ram, `Cho' Ramaswamy and Kuldip Nayyar offered comments on the procedure adopted requiring an invalid person in ambulance and appearing in the court. On the plea of the amicus curiae to initiate contempt proceedings against Justice Krishna Iyer and 22 others, the High Court initiated contempt proceedings against all of them and it is still pending.

The High Court, in its order on December 13 last, directed the three to publish an apology, in default the court would consider passing appropriate sentence on them. The High Court however suspended the operation of the order to enable them to move the Apex Court and hence the appeal.

In their appeal, the appellants submitted that they had not yet pleaded guilty although tendered apologies. They contended that the news item did not in any way scandalise the judicial officer and it did not relate to any pending proceedings.

They said that the impugned judgment was vitiated by the principles of `legal bias' as Justice Mohan Kumar had a telephonic conversation with Mr. Gopalakrishnan regarding an earlier editorial published in the daily, they said and sought a direction to set aside the order and an interim stay of its operation.

They said publication of apologies on the front page would virtually erode the faith of the public in the Mathruboomi daily and would eventually result in sounding the death knell of one of the foremost Malayalam dailies in due course. Also publication of the apologies would amount to acceptance of guilt by the daily, they said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National