The Supreme Court on Friday directed noted author Arundhati Roy to appear in a contempt case before the Bombay High Court on Monday even as it issued notice to the Maharashtra Government on her petition challenging the contempt notice issued on her article criticising the denial of bail to one Delhi University professor GN Saibaba accused of having naxal links.
The article published in Outlook magazine on May 9 last year had criticised the denial of bail to Saibaba, who is 90 per cent handicapped. Roy questioned the bail granted by higher courts to 2002 riots accused Babu Bajrangi, Mayaben Kodnani and fake encounter accused BJP President Amit Shah although Shah was later given a clean chit in the case.
The High Court judge found Roy’s article scandalous for her comments against the judiciary, the Central Government and police and said that the article gave an impression that she thinks herself to be “above law” for such “nasty” writing despite being an award-winning writer.
The apex bench of Justices JS Khehar and C Nagappan decided to issue notice on Roy’s plea but refused to stay the High Court decision. It said, “You should have no fear of appearing in Court on Monday.” Her lawyer senior advocate CU Singh sought her personal exemption citing that ahead of the Monday hearing, passions were whipped up and copies of her article burnt to demonstrate protest.
The Court said, “We do not want to grant you or deny you. We have thought about your request carefully. You go and appear. We are there. We have initiated the process and looking into the issue.” The matter is expected to come up after two weeks.