Kerala’s CPI(M) leader MV Jayarajan who had termed certain judges as Sumbhans (idiots or nincompoops) was on Monday sent to prison after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction by the High Court in a contempt case pertaining to his derogatory remarks against the Judiciary. He had undergone nine days’ imprisonment in 2011 before getting bail in the same case.
Jayarajan had — while delivering a speech on June 26, 2010 — described certain judges of the High Court, who had pronounced a verdict banning roadside public meetings, as Sumbhans. He also commented that people would attach Pulluvila (worth grass or totally unworthy) to such judgements, inviting the wrath of the Judiciary which initiated a contempt case against him.
The Supreme Court, which on Friday upheld Jayarajan’s conviction by the Kerala High Court observing that the Marxist leader had brought humiliation to the Judiciary with his comments and had given a public call to violate the High Court verdict. The High Court had awarded him six month imprisonment but the apex court reduced it to four weeks.
“I am not going to the jail for robbery, pickpocketing or corruption. This imprisonment is part of my struggle for safeguarding citizens’ rights. I am going to the prison as a proud man,” Jayarajan said outside the High Court in Kochi where he had surrendered in response to the Supreme Court verdict. He said he did not feel that he had committed any crime.
Jayarajan, a State committee member of the CPI(M) from Kerala’s Marxist heartland Kannur, had reached Kochi on Monday morning itself to surrender before the High Court. Before reaching the court, he inaugurated an agitation by the joint committee of lottery agents at which he said the punishment could not force him to alter his perspective.
A division bench of the Kerala High Court had on June 23, 2010 pronounced a judgement banning public meetings on roadsides citing the difficulties such events caused to the people. The verdict, criticised by many as an example of judicial activism, had shocked the entire political community of the State.
Criticising the High Court’s verdict, Jayarajan said in Kannur on June 26, 2010, “People attach just Pulluvila to such verdicts. In a democracy, judges are supposed to interpret law and not to formulate it. Unfortunately, some Sumbhans sitting in judges’ chairs are doing nothing but this (formulating laws).”
The Marxist leader, who had come prepared to be taken to the jail, presented himself before the High Court Registrar accompanied by his lawyer at about 11.45 am Monday. Completing the procedures within ten minutes, the judicial registrar handed Jayarajan over to the police to be taken to the Central Prison at Poojappura, Thiruvananthapuram.
The CPI(M) and its affiliated outfits made his journey to the prison a big event by holding demonstrations outside the High Court in Kochi and at the prison gates in Thiruvananthapuram. Jayarajan told the authorities that he did not want any special facilities at the prison. He was given a cell in the hospital section of the Central Prison.