SC flays Teesta for criticising judiciary through media

Taking strong exception to articles written by social activist Teesta...

Taking strong exception to articles written by social activist Teesta Setalvad in newspapers accusing the judiciary of deliberately delaying hearings in the Gujarat riots case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday warned her against lowering the dignity of judiciary in the eyes of people.

“It is shameful. The articles are in bad taste,” remarked Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan taking note of Setalvad’s statements appearing almost prior to every hearing scheduled in the apex court.

“Who is Teesta Setalvad? What is her locus standi? asked the Bench, also comprising Justice R V Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari.

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“There is one article that appeared (written by her). If she is representing these persons (Godhra accused) we do not want to hear them,” the Bench said seeking to know, “Is she a spokesperson of these persons or petitioners?” The CJI was apparently pained by an article by her that appeared in a Malayalam weekly which claimed that hearing on Godhra cases were fixed in such a way that it gets adjourned finally. “There are 60,000 cases in the Supreme Court. It is not manually done. Everything is done by computer,” an annoyed Bench said, recalling how articles are also being written about fixing (posting) of the matters for hearing in the apex court.

“We see so many things in media. Sometimes it is educative for us and sometimes we simply ignore them but what is this (Setalvad’s article claiming court is unfair),” asked the Bench as it acceded to the plea by senior advocate Harish Salve “to treat the articles with contempt and ignore it.”