Criticising Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Justice Markandey Katju for his allegations of political interference in judicial appointments, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M. Karunanidhi, on Tuesday, wondered why the former apex court judge did not open his mouth for ten years.
Mr. Karunanidhi said over the last two days, Mr. Katju had come down from his dignified position and had made allegations due to some “indirect compulsions.”
In a statement, the DMK president said Mr. Katju had dragged the DMK indirectly into the controversy through his post on Facebook. He had said that despite corruption charges, a former high court judge was protected by an ally of the UPA from Tamil Nadu.
“If what he says is true, why did he not inform this when he was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court or when he was a Supreme Court judge? Was it because he wanted the position of PCI chairman after his retirement from the Supreme Court that he kept mum?” Mr. Karunanidhi wondered and asked why Mr. Katju failed to name the corrupt judge in his statement.
Claiming that he was forced to trace the antecedents of Mr. Katju after his allegations, Mr. Karunanidhi said the former SC judge’s family was close to the Congress leadership from the times of Jawaharlal Nehru. After enjoying the benefits of being a High Court Chief Justice and an apex court judge during the Congress-led regime, why he was being critical of the UPA and the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh now when a new regime had taken over, the former Chief Minister asked.
Also, raising suspicion on the motives behind the PCI chairman’s praise of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as one who never interfered with the functioning of the judiciary, Mr. Karunanidhi said it was the same Mr. Katju who last year severely criticised the Tamil Nadu government.
“Let the Chief Minister [Jayalalithaa] say she is unable to run the government in accordance to the Constitution and submit resignation,” he quoted an observation made by Mr. Katju in a matter before the Press Council last year.
Quoting several other instances, the statement said Mr. Katju was a self-contradictory angry man and a bundle of contradiction.
Published - July 22, 2014 10:57 pm IST
