Withdraw The Contempt Notice To Arundhati Roy

Press Release By Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakha Sangathan

13 January, 2016
Countercyrrents.org

The Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakha Sangathan, Odisha (GASS) is deeply concerned with the issue of contempt notice to writer Arundhati Roy by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on 23rd December, 2015 for her writings in Outlook magazine (May 18, 2015 issue) titled ‘Professor, P.O.W.’ She had criticized the charges imposed by the State against the Professor G.N. Saibaba in her writings including rejection of bail application by the same Court earlier. In this debate of Right to freedom of speech (in article 19 (1)(a) of the constitution) verses contempt of notice (in article 129 and 215 where the constitution gives power to the higher judiciary of contempt of court) here we want to say that in a democratic country like India, people enjoy the sovereign power. They elect the government and the government chooses appropriate persons in appropriate procedure to run various institutions including the Judiciary. So, it has always been a role of a writer, who is a public also, to highlight the misdeeds of a government so that a better government could be chosen and so the democracy could prevail.

Here the GASS is deeply disturbed when the Honourable Nagpur Bench comments on writings of Arundhati, that ‘the author has even gone to the extent of scandalizing and questioning the credibility of the higher judiciary by giving examples of the orders of bail granted to “Babu Bajarangi”, “Maya Kodnani” and “Amit Shah” who were allegedly involved in Gujurat riot. It is true that nearly 1000 people, mostly muslims, were killed in a pre-planned way in the riot. But the rate of conviction and confinement in jail is much less than the rate of the crime. Rather persons like Teesta Sheetalvad and Javed Anand have always been harassed by various institutions of democratic India for their role in bringing out the truth before public.

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has expressed surprise over no ‘action against the author’ by the central government, the state government, the police machinery and the armed forces for Arundhati Roy’s ‘intemperate and humiliating language’ in the name of freedom of speech. The Honourable Court feels that the writer here is ‘exploiting the situation’. Here what the Organisation feels encounter, custodial deaths, indiscriminate firing can never be part of a democracy. But the security forces have always been engaged with such crime and have gone scot-free. In case of infamous Maikanch firing (2000) and Kaling Nagar firing (2006) 17 tribals got killed due to indiscriminate firing by the Odisha police. But this has never been trialed in any of the court. Rather local tribals and dalits have been punished by the local court for opposing such crime.

Even though, distress migration, farmers’ suicide, human trafficking and forceful displacement etc. are asymmetric with welfare State but none of the governments have ever tried to give justice to those victims. But prior to the election every government assures many things before the election commission in their manifesto.

In this situation if a person writes against the State and structural violence what the mistake he/she does? Instead of respecting dissenting voice of a citizen if one of the institutions go for sending notice of contempt of court against the dissenter then how could one say that we are in a ‘most tolerant county like India’ or in a democratic country like India?

The GASS agrees with the analysis of former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Markendaya Katju (Retd.) who has written in his blog regarding this contempt notice that ‘the basic principle in a democracy is that people are the supreme. It follows that all authorities – whether judges, legislators, ministers, or bureaucrats are servant of the people.’ So, there is no dispute that it is the right of a writer like Arundhati Roy to criticize the State and the government when these institutions are not functioning properly.

Here the GASS appeals before the honorable Bombay High Court to withdraw the contempt notice given to the writer and to sanction bail for G.N. Saibaba, a disable person, on humanitarian ground.


Golak Bihari Nath
Working President,
Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakha Sangathan, Odisha

Contarct : c/o Brajendra Mohanti, plot no – 93(p), Acharya Vihar, Bhubaneswar – 751013
Phone : 9439905156, email : [email protected]