Retired Supreme Court judge Jasti Chelameswar on Wednesday said it is important to protect the right to freedom of speech, and once it is demolished, nothing much will remain of the fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution.
Mr. Chelameswar (67) was speaking at an online discussion, “Judicial Criticism, Contempt and Democracy” organised by the progressive students’ forum of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
In 2018, he was one of the four judges who held a press conference against the functioning of the then chief justice of India, Dipak Misra. Mr. Chelameswar has delivered landmark judgements like Aadhaar, upheld freedom of speech, and struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act.
He said, “In a democracy, free speech is believed to be the right to talk against all organs of the government. Without free speech, there is no freedom to find out the truth and only when free speech is allowed will we know the truth.”
He added, “This does not mean that one can speak whatever comes to one’s mind. One has to follow norms of decency and morality even when one is talking to one’s neighbour. There always has to be some degree of restraint.”
Talking about contempt of court, he said, there is civil and criminal contempt, and it is decided upon the subject matter of contempt. Citing an example, he said, “If a particular judge is found driving in violation of traffic rules and if he is caught by the police and given a chalan, I don’t think that is contempt. Judges are not exempted from the laws.”
“Britain has abolished the contempt of court Act. Whether India should continue it or not it is for parliament and the Supreme Court to decide,” Mr. Chelameswar said.
When asked if he will pull up someone who criticises him, he said, “For every case that I decided in 21 years, I made one enemy because one party had to lose. The most charitable comment the losing party can say is, ‘I don’t know the law’, and I would accept that. I will not haul someone who calls me corrupt.”
“As Mahatma Gandhi said there is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts,” Mr. Chelameswar said.