The Supreme Court on Tuesday closed a 2003 case referred to a Constitution Bench to examine the limits of legislative privilege and its interplay with free speech [N Ravi and others v. Speaker, Legislative Assembly, Chennai and others].
The Court decided to close the case in view of the fact that the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly had recalled the resolution based on which the case came to be initiated.
Therefore, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Aravind Kumar, Prashant Kumar Mishra, Joymalya Bagchi, Vipul M Pancholi, Shree Chandrashekhar and V Mohana closed the matter as infructuous.
The Court clarified that the larger questions of law raised in the case remain open but can be examined in future in appropriate proceedings.
"The writ petitions are disposed of as having become infructuous. However, the questions of law are kept open to be pursued in future in appropriate proceedings," the Court said.
The case dates back to 2003 and arose from privilege proceedings initiated by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly against journalists of The Hindu by a resolution passed on November 7, 2003.
The Assembly had sentenced then Editor N Ravi, Executive Editor Malini Parthasarathy, Publisher S Rangarajan, Chief of Bureau V Jayant and Special Correspondent Radha Venkatesan to 15 days' simple imprisonment for breach of privilege and contempt over an editorial critical of the then State government headed by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
The journalists then approached the Supreme Court against the same. The top court stayed their arrest in November 2003.
In December 2003, the Court found that the dispute raised substantial questions concerning Article 194(3), which deals with legislative privileges, and its interplay with the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) and the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The matter was consequently referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench.
In 2004, the five-judge Bench noted an apparent conflict between earlier Supreme Court decisions on the relationship between legislative privileges and fundamental rights. Considering the wide ramifications of the issue, it referred the questions to a seven-judge Bench for an authoritative determination.
The reference remained pending for more than two decades before the Supreme Court decided in August this year to take it up for hearing from October 6 (today).
Ahead of this hearing, several journalists, media bodies and others sought to intervene in the case. They includes the Editors Guild of India, journalists Ajit Anjum, Seema Chishti, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Narendra Nath Mishra, The News Minute and its Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran, the People's Union for Civil Liberties, former MP Subhashini Ali and stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra.
The intervenors broadly sought safeguards against legislative privilege being used against journalists and citizens in a manner that curtails freedom of speech and expression.
Yesterday, however, the Court was informed that the Tamil Nadu Assembly had withdrawn the underlying privilege resolution in 2004. CJI Surya Kant orally indicated that the case may consequently have become academic and could be closed.
Today, the Court proceeded to close the matter after noting that by a July 30, 2004 resolution, the November 2003 resolution against The Hindu's journalists had effectively been recalled.
"It seems that the most relevant subsequent event, namely the resolution dated 30th July 2004, whereby the Legislative Assembly unanimously resolved to withdraw its previous resolution dated 7th November 2003 passed against the petitioners, was not specifically brought to the notice of this Court. It also escaped notice," the Court observed while closing the case.
Senior Advocate AM Singhvi noted that this perhaps marked the fastest disposal of a Constitution Bench case.
"Your Lordships may establish two records today. One, the shortest seven-judge Bench hearing, and second, the quickest disposal," he said.
"No, possibly you can add something more....one another seven-judge Bench matter also disposed of....There are another two matters which, to my mind, are definitely infructuous," replied CJI Kant.
Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran appeared for the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly.
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