Hours after serving her one-day jail sentence for showing disrespect to the Judiciary, an unrepentant Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy on Thursday said she is considering challenging the Supreme Court verdict against her as she found it violative of
principles of natural justice.
"The sentence is against the principles of natural justice. By tomorrow (Friday) we'll decide to file a writ petition on the issue," the author's lawyer Prashant Bhushan said at a press conference here.
One of the judges in the bench that pronounced the verdict against Roy on Wednesday also happened to be on the bench that had entertained the petition seeking intiation of contempt proceedings against Roy, other Narmada Bachao Andolan activists Medha
Patkar and Bhushan for shouting slogans in front of the apex court against the verdict on Sardar Sarovar Project.
Roy had earlier prayed that the Judge, G B Patnaik, recuse himself from the proceedings, since she did not expect an unbiased verdict. "Since the said judge did not recuse himself from the proceedings, it amounted to violation of principles of natural
justice," he said.
Reading out her statement at the press conference, Roy said she had not picked up a fight with the Judiciary with an intent to undermine the institution, rather "she had a stake in the society and cares about the role and efficacy of that institution."
"I accept the authority of the courts. I am not out to trash the institution, but to have a conversation with it," said the renowned author, as she once again picked holes in the verdict that put her behind the bars for a day.
Roy expressed serious reservations over some portions of the verdict on Wednesday, saying it implied that courts, which advocate equality of all before the law, were open to criticism by "experts" and from "within" but not from the commom citizen.
"In other words, it is not just what you say, nor its correctness and justification, but who says it, which determines, whether or not it constitutes criminal contempt."
When asked why she paid the Rs 2,000 fine to buy her freedom if she stood her ground, Roy said, "I decided that paying the fine was a correct thing to do, because I have made the point that I was trying to make. To take it further would be to make myself
into a martyr for a cause that is not mine alone.
"It is for India's free press to fight to patrol the boundaries of its freedom, which the law of contempt, as it stands today, severly restricts and threatens. I hope that the battle will be joined," she said.
Roy was joined by veteran journalists, N Ram, Vinod Mehta, Prabhat Joshi and Praful Bidwai, who shared the writer's anxiety over what they perceived as growing intolerance of the higher judiciary to objective criticism.
Talking of her experience in Tihar, Arundhati said she found the high-security "full of stories" and "much better maintained" than she had expected.
"Going to Tihar was an incredible experience... it was clean and the food was good... I could have spent three more months there," she said.
"I met many women prisoners, who were all excited about me.
"I met people who had been undertrial for several years, each of whom, however, counting to the last minute the time they had spent behind the bars awaiting their release.
"Although there were many stories that I could have done, but I wasn't there to be a voyeur.
"I respect the terrible feeling of the people at being there. I didn't want to make a mockery of what they are going through," said the writer of God of Small Things which fetched her the Booker Prize five years ago.
"The people who are running Tihar deserve a zindabad," she said, adding: "We must give praise where it is due."
When she was released, Roy was greeted by supporters led by Patkar, who denounced the apex court verdict and offered the writer a grape as a symbolic gesture to break her fast.
Commenting on the release of Roy and the Supreme Court decision, Patkar said "Nyay mar gaya, log zinda hain (Justice has been buried but people are still alive)".
