In an significant judgement protecting the editorial freedom, the Supreme Court on Friday imposed an unusual heavy fine of Rs 2 lakhs on Bengaluru-based association of excise practitioners for initiating a “false” contempt case against the editor of the city-based excise magazine.
A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly termed the action of Indirect Tax Practitioners’ Association, Bengaluru, in filing the contempt case against the Excise Law Time editor R.K. Jain for writing an editorial about the alleged “corruption” in the excise and custom department and tribunal as “misuse of the process of the court”.
“We agree that this petition lacks bona fide and is an abuse of the process of the court,” the apex court said while directing the association to pay Rs 1 lakh to Mr Jain as compensation for dragging him to the court and deposit the remaining Rs 1 lakh with the SC legal services authority.
The association initiated the criminal contempt against Mr Jain for his editorial in the Excise Law Times on June 1, 1009.
The apex court said, “It was though the duty of the excise practitioners to be vigilant to ensure transparent functioning of the tribunals dealing with excise and custom cases.”