Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Not convincing

Sir, — Your view that the writer was a law-abiding citizen and she did not deserve punishment for contempt of court may not sound convincing. This can be applied to any person who commits a heinous crime for the first time. No doubt it is a debatable point whether the judges and the law-makers are more equal than others before law to have extra protection sanctified by law. But once it has been accepted, we have only to see if these privileges are misused.

In all the contempt cases, the persons concerned are asked to give reasons why contempt proceedings should not be initiated. When the court receives an apology, the matter is dropped. You have accepted that Arundhati Roy "has admittedly been unsparing in her criticism of the apex court''. Just because she had won the Booker Prize for a book which was considered to be vulgar by some puritans in India, she cannot be above law.

M.R. Sridharan,
Kanpur

Sir, — It is sad that the Supreme Court has taken an extreme view of what is basically the feelings of an overgrown schoolgirl writing essays. How I wish the judges had just smiled away her comments like any of us would do with a rebellious child. I fear there would be repetition of the same.

M. Venugopalan,
Chennai

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• Not convincing
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