SC quashes HC order against The Shillong Times

NEW DELHI, April 2: The Supreme Court of India has quashed a contempt proceeding against The Shillong Times drawn by the High Court of Meghalaya in 2019.
In a significant judgment, the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Wednesday dismissed the High Court’s order of contempt of court with direction of payment of hefty fine and shutdown or ban on The Shillong Times in case of default.
The SC bench also allowed the appeals filed by The Shillong Times Editor, Patricia Mukhim, and Publisher Shobha Chaudhuri, against the contempt order passed by the Meghalaya High Court in March 2019. The direction of payment of fine, and in the event of default a shutdown/ban on The Shillong Times have been set aside, and the contempt proceedings against the publisher and editor have been closed, the judgment said.
Earlier, the top court had stayed conviction of the Editor/Publisher in the contempt case and had also stayed the operation of the judgment by which the High Court had also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on the two accused.
Both the Editor and the Publisher were held guilty by the High Court after The Shillong Times published a few articles on the perks and facilities for retired judges and their families. A Supreme Court bench led by the then Chief Justice, Ranjan Gogoi, stayed the operation of the judgment as it agreed to hear a plea by the journalist.
It may be recalled that the bench, comprising Chief Justice MY Mir and Justice SR Sen of the Meghalaya High Court, had held the newspaper liable for contempt of court. If they fail to pay the fine within a week, the order said, both of them would be sent to prison for six months and the newspaper will be banned, its order had said.
While delivering the judgment, the bench had asked Mukhim and Chaudhuri to “sit in the corner of the court room” till the court adjourned its proceedings for the day.
The contempt order was in connection with two specific stories that the 80-year-old daily published in December about a court order seeking better facilities for retired judges and their families. One of the articles titled, “When judges judge for themselves”, had drawn parallels between the order by Justice SR Sen and an order passed by two former judges of the High Court in 2016.
The report had said that according to the order, Justice Sen, who incidentally retired since then, wanted several provisions for retired chief justices and judges and their spouses and children. “Besides providing medical facilities for the spouses and children, the order stressed the need for providing protocol, guest houses, domestic help, mobile/internet charge at the rate of Rs 10,000 and mobile for Rs 80,000 for judges,” the report said.
Justice Sen had taken umbrage to the stories, particularly the one headlined, “When judges judge for themselves” and issued a notice to Mukhim and Chaudhuri asking them to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against the newspaper. The notice stated that it was “shocking that the publisher and editor of said newspaper without knowing the law or background of the case are making comments, which is definitely derogatory to a judge who is handling the case as well as the entire judges’ community”.
It called for Mukhim and Chaudhuri to make a “personal appearance” in the court to explain themselves. “Media is not to dictate to the court what the court should do,” the notice added.
On December 13, when the two appeared in court, a visibly indignant Justice Sen is supposed to have questioned Mukhim’s qualification “to write about judges”.  Subsequently, the matter was placed before another bench – consisting of Meghalaya High Court’s Chief Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, and Justice Sen himself.
Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover appeared for The Shillong Times.