SC stays sentence of scribes who wrote against ex-CJI

CNN-IBN Sep 28, 2007 at 05:23pm http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sc-stays-sentence-of-scribes-who-wrote-against-excji/49527-3-1.html ew Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the sentences of four journalists in a contempt of court case. The apex court, while rejecting the intervention application, asserted that the applicants had no locus standi as the question was restricted to whether the journalists had committed contempt or not. The Supreme Court has stayed the arrests on a petition filed by the journalists. It has appointed senior counsel and former additional solicitor general A R Andhiarjuna as "friend of the court" amicus curiae in the matter. The next date of hearing is in January 2008. The Delhi High Court had sentenced the senior journalists from the Mid-Day newspaper to four months in prison last Friday, after the newpaper published a series of articles in May, criticising former chief justice of India, Y K Sabharwal. The four journalists convicted for the same are Mid-Day City Editor M K Tayal, the then Publisher S K Akhtar, Resident Editor Vitusha Oberoi and cartoonist Irfan Khan. The reports by the journalists claimed Sabharwal ordered the sealing of lakhs of commercial establishments in New Delhi for the benefit of his sons who were involved in real estate business. A High Court Bench had earlier directed the four to furnish a personal bond of Rs 10,000 each and two sureties of the same amount for the bail. All the contemnors, along with some other journalists, were present in the court when the order of sentence was dictated by the Bench. The court, on September 11, had held them guilty, saying that they had crossed the Laxman Rekha. "The publications in the garb of scandalising a retired Chief Justice of India have, in fact, attacked the very institution, which according to us, is nothing short of contempt," the Bench said in its judgement on articles and cartoons that appeared in the newspaper about Sabharwal. "The Supreme Court in its judgement has clearly laid down the Laxman Rekha which we feel the publications have crossed," it said. Taking suo-motu cognisance of the articles published in the city tabloid, which alleged that Justice Sabharwal's order on sealing issue had been passed for the benefit of his sons who were involved in real estate business, the High Court on May 18 had issued notices to its editor, reporter and publisher. It later also issued a notice to the cartoonist of the tabloid for making a 'caricature' of Sabharwal. (With inputs from agencies)