Maharashtra Police flayed for casting aspersions on Supreme Court
New Delhi, Sep 6: The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong objection to the Maharashtra Police casting aspersions on its order placing five human rights activists under house arrest and told the Maharashtra government to discipline the police officers.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud adjourned the hearing on a PIL challenging the arrest of five activists to September 12 and ordered that they be kept in house arrest till then.
During the hearing, Justice Chandrachud lashed out at the Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference when the matter is pending before the court.
"You must ask your police officials to be more responsible. The matter is before us and we don't want to hear from police officials that the Supreme Court is wrong," Justice Chandrachud told Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Maharashtra government.
"I saw Assistant Police Commissioner, Pune, insinuating that the Supreme Court should not have interfered at this stage. He has no business telling that. Your are ruining the court's reputation. Casting aspertions...," Justice Chandrachud said.
"Tell him we have taken it very seriously," he added, while taking strong objection to the press conference the police held after the arrests of the five activists triggered outrage.
Mehta apologized to the court on behalf of the police.
On August 29, the apex court ordered the house arrest of activists Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonzalves.
In the media briefing, police showed documents and reiterated that a conspiracy was allegedly hatched by the five activists in connivance with the banned CPI (Maoist) "to overthrow the central government" and carry out "a Rajiv Gandhi-style assassination" to end (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi'd rule.
When counsels appearing for the petitioners urged the court to restrain police from sharing any information with the media, the bench refused to pass any order.
Mehta opposed the house arrest of the five activists, saying this could hamper the investigation. He added that there were "serious charges" against the five.
The government denied that the activists were held for dissent and told the court that petitioners Romila Thapar and others were strangers to the case.
The bench then asked senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared on behalf of the petitioners, to say whether a third party can intervene in a criminal case.
Singhvi argued for an independent enquiry by a Special Investigation Team constituted by the court.
Taking a dim view of the crackdown, Justice Chandrachud had said: "Dissent is a safety valve of democracy. If it is not allowed, the pressure cooker will burst."
On Wednesday, the Maharashtra Police filed an affidavit in the apex court and said that the activists belonged to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and were engaged in planning and executing large-scale violence.
The police urged the court to permit it to take them in its custody.
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Affront to non-Hindi speaking people: Chidambaram slams use of Hindi words in bills' names
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader P Chidambaram has slammed the "increasing practice" of the government using Hindi words in the titles of the bills and said the change is an "affront" to the non-Hindi-speaking people.
Chidambaram said the non-Hindi-speaking people cannot identify a Bill/Act with titles that are in Hindi words written in English letters, and they cannot pronounce them.
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"I am opposed to the increasing practice of the government using Hindi words written in English letters in the title of the Bills to be introduced in Parliament," the former Union minister said late Monday night.
Hitherto, the practice was to write the title of the Bill in English words in the English version and in Hindi words in the Hindi version of the Bill, Chidambaram said.
"When no one pointed out any difficulty in the 75 year practice, why should government make a change?" he said.
"This change is an affront to non-Hindi speaking people and to States that have an official language other than Hindi," the Congress leader said.
Successive governments have reiterated the promise that English will remain an Associate Official Language, Chidambaram said.
"I fear that promise is in danger of being broken," the Congress MP said.
