NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court last week reprimanded Editor V.N. Narayanan and Executive Editor Chandan Mitra of The Hindustan Times for an article by the former on September 10 last year containing a ‘Scurrilous attack on the judges of the apex court.
The two editors, along with Mr, Naresh Mohan, Executive President and Mr, Rakesh Sharma, Printer and Publisher, were president in court in response to a notice issued to them as 16 why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.
The apex court had issued the notice on a petition by Rear Admiral Satyindra Singh drawing the court’s attention to the article by Mr. Mitra, writing on the strictures then passed by the Supreme Court against law enforcing agencies in Punjab regarding police atrocities, had stated that judges were “in need of psychiatric counseling.”
When attention was drawn to Mr. Miua’s affidavit where he had said that Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination had come as a great personal shock to him, and he thought that militancy had been resurrected, and at the time of writing the offensive peace he was very uneasy and it waga result of the turmoil in his mind and he regretted the comments, Justice Verma heading a division bench with Justice B.N. Kirpal, asked “What have you done since then about it?”
The judge warned that the court would not hesitate to jail journalists who treated the courts with contempt.
Commenting on Mr, Narayanan’s statement that he had not seen the article before it was printed, Justice Verma said “You are a bunch of irresponsible.”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 14, 1996
