TAMIL NADU CONTEMPT CASE

A two-person Indian Supreme Court panel extended its stay of arrest warrants issued in Tamil Nadu for journalists involved in a high-profile contempt case; the panel also forwarded the case to a five-judge bench for review of the constitutional questions involved. See also The Hindu's coverage of today's proceedings here.

On November 7th, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution ordering six journalists to be imprisoned for 15 days for breach of privilege and "gross contempt" of the assembly; five of the journalists are from the newspaper The Hindu, one is from another publication that published a translation of an editorial that was critical of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's administration. One of the offending editorials is titled "Rising Intolerance," and you can read it here. See also this post at I'm no Superman. The Supreme Court issued a stay a few days after the Assembly passed the resolution. The Hindu subsequently editorialized that the resolution was a "crude and unconstitutional misadventure," and argued further that the resolution

comes against the disturbing backdrop of a systematic attempt by the Jayalalithaa Government to harass and browbeat the independent press.

The Times of India argued that the case raises some of the most fundamental issues in Indian constitutional law:

The basic issue here is not the alleged high-handedness of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly presided over by Ms Jayalalithaa versus N Ram’s right to criticise the powers-that-be. It is much wider and more sinister. The issue is whether the uncodified privileges enjoyed by the people’s elected representatives can be used to suppress the free speech of those who have elected them. It is as simple as that. For, in a democracy, the citizens’ right to dissent must remain forever.

In the same editorial, ToI called for the Supreme Court to overrule the landmark Searchlight case , which held that free speech rights of journalists must yield to the privileges of legislative bodies.

See also this background piece at Sify news.