Markandey Katju

Former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju has begun blogging about the judiciary again, despite his run-in with the Supreme Court’s rather draconian contempt powers had left him on the ropes, giving a strategic unconditional apology (which the apex court accepted on 7 January, having asserted its dominance over its former brother judge).

Ex-Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju has offered a two-page apology to the Supreme Court, saying he would be prepared to read it out in person in open court if required, in marked contrast to his belligerence last month after he accused the Supreme Court of conducting a surgical strike on him to humiliate him (which, perhaps, was kind of true in their suo motu contempt action against him for one of his many blog posts that were critical-cum-offensive against the judiciary).

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, together with justices PC Pant and UU Lalit, issued a contempt notice on retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju in a review petition in the Soumya murder case to which Gogoi had last month surprisingly invited Katju to argue in.

It was a series of surprises wrapped in an enigma, so to speak. In the end, the King of Surprises, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, pretty much proved to those who assembled in Court 5 of the Supreme Court on 17 October that no one could beat him in the game of springing surprises.

The Board of Control for Cricket India in India (BCCI) on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking the review of its 18 July verdict asking the country’s apex cricketing body to implement the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations for transparency and accountability in its functioning and limiting the involvement of ministers and government officials.

So, after some time out, ex-Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju (Retd.) is in the news again, seemingly putting a spanner in a variety of works.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday appointed former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju as the head of a legal panel to guide the board in understanding the recommendations of the Justice RM Lodha Committee which have been approved by the apex court.

Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, who had in January sort-of announced he would leave Facebook and its ‘stupid and arrogant’ abusing masses behind, came back again in earnest this month with a flood of Facebook and blog posts.

The writ petition of the former Judge of the Supreme Court and former chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju, challenging the unanimous resolutions passed by both the  Houses of Parliament disapproving of his remarks on Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in March last year, was heard by the Supreme Court’s three Judge bench this forenoon, with the Amicus Curiae, Fali Nariman making a snide remark about the petitioner considering himself a super citizen, by adding ‘former Judge of the Supreme Court’ etc, to his name. 

Retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju has castigated the Supreme Court for its judgment against fired Gujarat police service officer Sanjiv Bhatt on his blog.

Markandey Katju committed no offence by dubbing as “nonsense” the Hindu belief that cow is mother, said a Delhi court while rejecting a plea to register a First Information Report (FIR) against the former Supreme Court judge, reported the PTI. The Supreme Court meanwhile told Katju that the parliament was free to condemn his views, reported IANS.

Metropolitan Magistrate Deepika Singh rejected the complaint that was made against Katju under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), Section 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race) of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC).

The complainant claimed that Katju had deliberately uttered these words to hurt religious feelings of the entire Hindu community including the complainant, but Singh observed that Katju’s expression fell within his constitutional freedom of speech and expression.

Meanwhile, Katju had, through senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, filed a plea in the Supreme Court arguing that the parliament had damaged his reputation by condemning him for his statement that Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a "japanese agent" and Mahatma Gandhi was a "British agent".

The SC bench was headed by justice TS Thakur, and it agreed to hear the matter, appointing senior advocate Fali S Nariman as amicus curiae, but told him that the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha's passage of unanimous resolutions condemning Katju's statements did not violate Katju's freedom of speech and expression.

One of the many things that lawyers practising at the supreme and high courts hate most about the filing process is curing defects in the paperbooks.

In a landmark judgement, the US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that gay people can marry nationwide and states cannot ban same-sex marriage - an issue that divides America and India.

"For those of you who follow former Supreme Court Justice and former Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman, Justice Katju on Facebook, you would have learnt two things over the last couple of months: first he’s holidaying in the US with family and second he’s making very serious allegations of corruption against the sitting Chief Justice of India HL Dattu...”

“So, for Justice Katju to accuse the sitting CJI of corruption and not be served with a contempt notice, is indeed a big leap for the Indian judiciary – maybe they are finally open to the idea of some public scrutiny and criticism,” asks Prashant Reddy in The Hoot

Ex-Supreme Court judge and high court chief justice Markandey Katju wrote on his blog that he had once spiked his own recommendation of a high court lawyer for judgeship, because that “male lawyer was having a live in relationship with a lady lawyer to whom he was not married. They were often seen openly going to parties, functions and restaurants together. Due to this advice I dropped the idea of recommending the name of that lawyer for Judgeship of the High Court.” Satyam Bruyat

When people later criticised his decision afterwards, he wrote:

My reply was that while I myself am fairly modern, Indian society is largely still conservative, and largely still does not approve of live in relationship, though it is not illegal.. While lawyers can have live in relationship, it is as yet not ethically permissible to Judges.

So if you want to be judge, please do not have a live in relationship

In 2010, Katju decided in the Supreme Court that “Indian society is changing, and this change has been reflected and recognized by Parliament by enacting The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005”, accepting that “relationship in the nature of marriage” could potentially also include “live in relationships”. Hat-tip @mohitsingh8

Ex-Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju will be replaced as Press Council of India (PCI) chairman by ex Supreme Court judge Justice CK Prasad, reported the PTI.

Katju’s three-year term ended on 11 October, reported The Hindu yesterday.

Katju has been recently busy on his blog and in public, promoting a possibly upcoming tell-all book about the Indian judiciary.

Presumably his book will also tackle one or two other issues, judging by Katju’s prodigious and eclectic output that ranges from his campaign for the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) to his love of both Sanskrit and Urdu, and oftentimes also the plain nonsensical...