NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has made it very risky for any organisation to publish a survey on alleged corruption in lower judiciary. The court said on Tuesday that the law permitted one or many trial courts to make a reference to a high court to launch contempt proceedings against those responsible for the embarrassing findings.
This ruling came in an 11-year-old case filed by Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMC), which, along with their top management, were asked by a magistrate in Kangan, J&K, in 2006 to show cause as to why contempt of court proceedings or action under criminal defamation provisions of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) not be initiated against them.
The magistrate had taken objection to an article in the ‘Greater Kashmir’ daily that quoted a survey, conducted by CMS and published by TII, on "rampant corruption" in the subordinate judiciary. But neither TII’s nor CMS’s representatives appeared before the magistrate, who, later the same year, issued bailable arrest warrants against their brass. The warrants were stayed by the SC in 2006 itself.
On Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay K Kaul rejected senior advocate Jayant Bhushan’s argument that the survey was conducted by asking litigants about their experience in court, and projected the general state of affairs in subordinate courts without branding any single trial court or judge.
Bhushan said, "The magistrate against whom the contemptuous remarks or allegations were made, he alone could have initiated proceedings to refer contempt proceedings to the HC. It was a general survey on the health of judiciary. If the Kangan magistrate’s decision is upheld, then it would mean any or every magistrate throughout the state can initiate such proceedings."
Please click here to read more.