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SC verdict puts Kerala Government in a spot
The CPI(M) is pleased with the relief it has won the six-month imprisonment the Kerala High Court awarded Marxist leader MV Jayarajan on November 8 in a contempt of court case, with the Supreme Court granting him bail on Tuesday.
The decision would also put the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala under a lot of political pressure as it had in its eagerness to attack the Opposition indirectly justified the high court’s refusal to stay the punishment.
In a sense, the Supreme Court’s observations have given validity to almost all the criticisms CPI(M) had levelled against the various aspects of the high court’s verdict. At the same time, the party views the criticisms the apex court has made against its protest in front of the high court in Kochi on Monday as a natural response from the judiciary.
“We were expecting such an intervention in the case by the apex court,” said State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan while responding to the Supreme Court verdict. Party politburo member and former Home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said, “It is good that the Supreme Court has corrected a wrong decision taken by the high court.”
The UDF Government, which has been made party to the case by the apex court, will find the further proceedings embarrassing. The Assembly had unanimously decided to allow roadside meetings but a stay was imposed on it with the high court’s ban. The Government will now be forced to make its stand clear on this issue.
The BJP said the Supreme Court order justified its stand on the Jayarajan affair. “The high court’s refusal to stay the punishment had generated suspicions among the people about the court’s intentions. The Supreme Court verdict has proved that the BJP’s stand was correct,” said State party chief V Muraleedharan.
The Congress tried to pretend that it did not want to give undue importance to the Supreme Court verdict by saying that it was not proper for any party to criticise the court when a particular verdict went against its interests and praise it when the judgement turned out to be in its favour.
The CPI(M), which had suffered a setback in the name of the high court’s sentence against Jayarajan for calling judges nincompoops, would now make the apex court’s verdict an instrument of political campaign and to force the Congress-led Government to adopt a clear position on the issue of allowing roadside meetings.
