On Friday, the Delhi High Court has slapped 4 months’ imprisonment on four journalists from Mid-Day Delhi for contempt of court. The court sentenced four journalists for writing and publishing news reports against the former chief justice of India, YK Sabharwal.

The Delhi HC also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 each. Later, the Supreme Court granted bail to all the four journalists.

Earlier, the Mid-Day eveninger in Delhi had published reports claiming that Sabharwal had issued orders for the sealing of lakhs of commercial establishments in New Delhi in 2006. At the same time, Sabharwal’s sons got into partnerships with shopping malls and Builders of commercial establishments in Delhi.

The High Court convicted four journalists, Mid-day City Editor M K Tayal, the then Publisher S K Akhtar, Resident Editor Vitusha Oberoi and cartoonist Irfan Khan for publishing the reports. The four journalists have planned to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the HC judgment.

The HC Division Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice B N Chaturvedi ordered to release the four journalists following the Supreme Court order. The Supreme Court had passed the order to the high court to grant bail to all four journalists after pronouncing the sentence.

The HC Bench said:

We feel, in this peculiar case, the contemnors have tarnished the image of the highest court and the sentence of four months’ imprisonment would serve the justice.

All the contemnors and some other journalists were present in the court when the Bench passed the order of sentence. On September 11, the court had held them guilty by stating that they had crossed the Laxman Rekha. The court reacted strongly against the articles and cartoons that appeared in the newspaper about former CJI Sabharwal.

The court had said:

The publications in the garb of scandalising a retired Chief Justice of India have, in fact, attacked the very institution, which according to us, is nothing short of contempt.

Earlier on May 18, the Delhi High Court had taken suo-motu cognisance of the reports published in the tabloid that had alleged that Justice Sabharwal had passed the sealing order for the benefit of his sons. His sons were said to be involved in real estate business in Delhi. The high Court had issued notices to Mid-Day editor, reporter and publisher in this matter.

Now, another debate has been started that in the Indian democracy who is the judiciary accountable to? Is it accountable to anyone at all? Tthere cannot be an institution above all kinds of accountability. Some eminent lawyers have started saying that there is need to be an institution to act as a watchdog over the judiciary. Some groups of eminent citizens and lawyers have also accused the former CJI Y K Sabharwal of judicial misconduct.

Some of the senior lawyers reportedly alleged that Sabarwal violated the law. According to the campaign for judicial accountability, former CJI sabharwal passed orders of sealing drive on lakhs of commercial establishments working in residential areas when his own sons got into partnerships with shopping malls and shopping complex developers that allegedly benefited from the sealing drive in Delhi.

Mid-Day editorial team had urged in the court that the allegations were true. The reports were based on irreproachable, reliable and provable documents that were obtained from the website of the Department of Company Affairs, Government of India. Harish salve said:

There is a prima facie case against former chief justice of India justice YK Sabharwal in this matter.

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