A meeting with Jayalalitha

This incident happened shortly I retired as a Judge of the Supreme Court in September 2011.

I was the Chief Justice of Madras High Court for about one year ( 2004-2005 ), but even thereafter have retained close ties with the High Court and the people of Tamilnadu. Maybe in my previous birth ( which I do not believe in ) I was a Tamilian.

 When I was Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court I met the then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, and requested him to grant an amount of Rs. 5000 ( apart from their pension ) to all retired Judges of Allahabad High Court for engaging a multi purpose domestic servant ( who knew not only cooking, washing etc. but also driving a car ). He had immediately acceded to my request.

 So I wanted a similar allowance to be given to retired Judges of Madras High Court. Normally no one cares for retired Judges, but they are often old and infirm, and need more help than sitting Judges.

I went to Chennai some time in 2012 or 2013 ( after retiring from the Supreme Court ) to attend some function. There I sought an appointment with the Chief Minister Jayalalitha, which was granted immediately.

I went to the Secretariat, and was taken to her office, perhaps on the second floor.

On entering her office room, I was greeted by Jayalalitha, who was sitting across her office table. No other politician was there, but there were several senior officials, the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, etc. in the room, sitting on chairs in front of the side wall. She introduced me to them, and then asked me to sit on aa chair across her office table. I was offered tea..

 I said to her " Madam, before I tell you what I have come for, let me tell you that I respect you, because when I was Chief Justice here, and you were the Chief Minister, you respected the independence of the judiciary. You never asked me to recommend any name for appointment as Judge of the High Court, and never tried to interfere with my functioning in any way ".( I did not tell her how the DMK had behaved in this connection ).

 She was happy to hear this.

 Then I placed before her the Memorandum I had brought, requesting for an allowance to retired Judges of Madras High Court to engage a domestic servant, and told her what I had done for retired Judges of Allahabad High Court.I told her that retired Judges are more in need of help than sitting Judges, as they are older, often infirm.

She said she would certainly look into it, and a few weeks later acceded to my request. All retired Madras High Court Jiudges are now getting this allowance.

 I then told her that I was told she knew Hindi. At this she smiled, and said ' थोड़ा बहुत जानती हूँ ( 'Thoda bahut jaanti hoon ' i.e. I know a bit ), and started speaking in fluent Hindi.

 I was momentarily tempted to say that she looked beautiful ( which I do believe ), but then I checked my impulse. She may have taken offence, and discretion is the better part of valour.

 The meeting ended in very cordial terms.

Release Kovan immediately and unconditionally

Jayalalitha must now release Kovan, the Tamil singer, immediately and unconditionally and drop the trumped up criminal charges against him ( of sedition etc  ), but evidently she seems unwilling to uphold the Constitution ( to which she has taken an oath ), part of which is Article 19(1)(a), which guarantees to all citizens freedom of speech and expression.

 I had thought that she had matured and mellowed down, but evidently I was mistaken. What was the offence of Kovan for which he was arrested at 2 a.m. ? That he criticized her for not imposing prohibition and for some other things. But in a democracy surely the people have a right to criticize the government.

 In feudal times the king was supreme, and the people were his subjects. Hence the people had no right to criticize the king.,

In a democracy, however, this relationship is reversed. Now it is the people who are supreme, and all state authorities, whether President of India, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, other Ministers and Judges, Chief Ministers, bureaucrats, police, etc are nothing but the servants of the people. Surely the masters ( the people ) have a right to criticize the servants ( the state authorities ) if they think the servants are not functioning properly..

 Jayalalitha's action is reminiscient of Mamata Banerjee's equally despotic and arbitrary action of getting Prof. Mahapatra arrested for posting cartoons about her on the social media, or of the recent circular of the Maharashtra police ( subsequently withdrawn ) stating that any criticism of the government will be treated as sedition.

 It is not only Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution but also the International Covenant of Political and Human Rights, which India ratified in 1979, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. Of course this right, like all rights, is not absolute. But as held by the Supreme Court in Sri Indra Das vs. State of Assam ( see online ) , it is only when there is an imminent threat of violence etc ( the clear and present danger test of the celebrated Justice Holmes of the U.S. Supreme Court ) that the right can be interfered with. Kovan had not done anything which posed an imminent threat of violence. He had only demanded closing of liquor shops as he thought that drinking of alcohol did damage to society. .

 I am myself not in favour of prohibition, as experience of Prohibition in America in the 1920s has shown it increases crime ( the Mafia ). But people have a right to express their opinion.

 If Jayalalitha persists in such high handed and unconstitutional behaviour I am afraid she is inviting action by the President of India under Article 356 of the Constitution

 As regards the police officers and policemen who carried out this illegal order there is something I wish to tell them.

 In the Nuremburg Trials after the Second World War the Nazi war criminals took the plea that ' orders are orders ', i.e. they were only carrying out the orders of their political superior Hitler. This plea was rejected, and most of them were sentenced to be hanged.  Policemen and other authorities must not carry out illegal orders, such as the one given in Kovan's case, and if they do, they are liable to be criminally prosecuted and given harsh punishment

Jayalalitha

 Jayalalitha has been acquited by the Karnataka High Court. I would not like to comment on the verdict as I have not read the judgment. But I would like to say, as I have said earlier also, that she never interfered with my functioning when I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court ( 2004-2005 ) and she was the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, and she always respected the independence of the judiciary. She never asked me to recommend anyone for Judgeship of the High Court, and she never sought to influence the judiciary in any way.

Throughout my stay as Chief Justice of Madras High Court I met her only once, and that was at Raj Bhawan when she came to my oath taking ceremony. Thereafter I never met her while I was Chief Justice, as I had made it a strict rule that I will never go to the house or office of any politician as long as I was the Chief Justice. Ministers of both the D.M.K.( which was in power in the Central Govt. as an ally of the Congress ) and A.D.M.K.( which was in power in the state ) would come to meet me at my residence on 17, Greenways Road, to discuss various issues, but I never went to their houses or offices. I told all of them the same thing : that as Chief Justice I would be totally impartial, and so if the law was in their favour the judgment would go in their favour, but if the law was against them it would go against them.

 While Jayalalitha respected the independence of the judiciary, I regret to say the same cannot be said about the D.M.K. A Union Minister belonging to that party repeatedly met me with a list of names of lawyers whom he wanted recommended for High Court Judgeship. I enquired about these persons, and found that many of them were not even practising lawyers. No doubt they had been enrolled as lawyers many years ago, but they were never seen in law courts, and were probably full time politicians. Obviously if such persons were appointed as Judges they would not be impartial.

 When I told that Union Minister that I would not recommend the persons in the list he had given me ( and who were all undeserving persons ) he told me that he had given an assurance to these persons that they would become High Court Judges. I told him that he had no business to give such an assurance. He then said that by refusing to recommend his names I was jeopardising my chances of becoming a Supreme Court Judge. I said that indeed I aspired to be a Supreme Court Judge, but for becoming one I would not do wrong things, come what may. The maximum punishment which could be given me was not to allow me to become a Supreme Court Judge, but I was prepared for that punishment.

 I have always been of the view that a lawyer who is too close to any political party is not fit to be a Judge as he cannot be impartial. So in the list of 20 persons I recommended ( as there were over 25 vacancies in the High Court at that time ) there was no one close to D.M.K. or A.D.M.K.or any other political party. And I must say to the credit of Jayalalitha that she never objected to the names I recommended, although there was no lawyer belonging to, or close to, the ADMK in my list. She approved all the names I recommended.

 The DMK was very annoyed that I had not recommended anyone in the list their Minister had given me, and they stalled appointments of the persons I had recommended for over 6 months. They could do that as in the UPA Congress did not have a majority in Parliament, and was dependent on its allies, of which the DMK was a big one, for survival. Ultimately it was only when a PIL was filed and orders issued by the Supreme Court that the appointments could be made.

 As I said before, apart from our meeting at Raj Bhawan at my oath taking, I never met Jayalaitha during my term as Chief Justice of Madras High Court. It was much later when I came to Chennai for some function ( in 2012 or so, after I had retired from the Supreme Court ) ) that I sought an appointment with her, and met her at her office in the Secretariat. I had gone to meet her to request her to give an allowance to retired High Court Judges of Madras High Court for engaging a servant ( as I had got done for retired Judges of Allahabad High Court ).

 I arrived punctually on time, and was taken straight to her office. which was perhaps on the second floor. There was no politician  apart from herself in the room, but there were about half a dozen senior officers, the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, etc whom she introduced to me. She then requested me to sit down.

 I thanked her for giving me an appointment, and then submitted to her the memorandum I had prepared in which was mentioned the request for an allowance to retired High Court Judges. She read it, and said she will certainly consider it ( it was subsequently granted ).

 I then told her that I respected her because she never interfered with the functioning of the judiciary when I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court, and never asked me to recommend any name for Judgeship.

 I then told her that Tamilians should learn Hindi, as it was in their interest to do so as they faced great difficulty when they go out of Tamilnadu. She said that there was a reaction in Tamilnadu because some North Indian politicians tried to impose Hindi. I agreed with her that those North Indian politicians were wrong. This is the age of democracy, and nothing should be imposed. However all that is now in the past, and Tamilians should reconsider.

 I then said that I was told that she knew Hindi. At this she smiled, and started speaking in fluent Hindi, and we spoke in Hindi for the next 5 minutes.

I was half inclined to tell her that she looked pretty, but decided that discretion is the better part of valour !