The Hindu : National : Apex court asks scribe, TV channel to apologise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 21, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Apex court asks scribe, TV channel to apologise

J. Venkatesan

For sting operation in which warrants were issued to Abdul Kalam and former CJI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Vijay Shekar, journalist, and the Zee television channel to file an appropriate affidavit tendering an apology for conducting the ‘cash for warrant’ sting operation, in which an Ahmedabad Magistrate issued warrants against the former President, Abdul Kalam, and the former Chief Justice of India, V.N. Khare, and two others.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal pointed out that the reporter and the channel had not responded to the notice as to why they should not be prosecuted for conducting the operations with malicious intent to tarnish the image of the lower judiciary.

Fictitious complaint

The warrants against Mr. Kalam, Mr. Khare, the former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice B.P. Singh, and senior lawyer R.K. Jain (who had died) were obtained in a sting operation by Mr. Shekhar, who paid Rs.40,000 to three Ahmedabad-based advocates, who in turn obtained bailable warrants from the Magistrate on the basis of a fictitious complaint.

The court had already quashed the bailable arrest warrants issued by the Magistrate, M.S. Brahm Bhatt, holding that the complaint was “ex-facie fraud.”

On Wednesday, the CJI told senior counsel Arun Jaitley and Maninder Singh, appearing for the channel and the reporter, “if he [journalist] is not prepared to tender apology, then he should be prepared to face the consequences. It [sting operation] is illegal. Doing an unlawful act is a criminal offence. We want to close the case. If he is not cooperating, we can’t do anything.”

Mr. Jaitley said: “It was a positive intent to show whether he is able to manipulate the system and I [reporter] tested it through a lawyer.”

The CJI replied: “Your intention may be bona fide but see what happened to the Magistrate, he was suspended from service.”

Wrong names

Appearing for the Central Bureau of Investigation, Solicitor-General G. E. Vahanvati submitted that they had given wrong names for getting the warrants and the Magistrate’s entire career was affected. “Who will compensate the loss suffered by the magistrate,” Mr. Vahanvati asked.

Reinstated

Counsel for the Gujarat government, Hemantika Wahi, informed the court that the Magistrate concerned had been exonerated by a committee appointed by the Gujarat High Court and that he had been reinstated in service. She said the channel should be prosecuted and the reporter arrested for airing the sting operation. But Mr. Maninder Singh submitted that the compact disc was presented to the court and only thereafter it was aired.

At the end of the arguments, the Bench granted six weeks to the channel and Mr. Shekar to file an appropriate affidavit and asked the Gujarat Bar Council to file a status report on the disciplinary proceedings initiated against the lawyers who conducted the sting operation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National

News Update

Stories in this Section