A Short, But Urgent Constitutional Message

In a welcome development, the Supreme Court advised the political class to be more tolerant of each other’s opinion and said that the debasement in dialogue had become the chief problem of democracy

- Upendra Baxi

We are accustomed to prolix and profound constitutional homilies from the Supreme Court of India (SCI). These are, of course, very crucial. But the very short order delivered last week by Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh in Nupur J. Sharma vs State of West Bengal is also constitutionally poignant and perennial. It directs attention to civility and dignity of political discourse, which the norms of the Constitution command.

Purists may, indeed, trivially argue that there was no scope for the judicial observations given the fact that the State had indicated that it would withdraw from prosecution of all criminal cases registered by the West Bengal police against editors and journalists of web portal OpIndia. But they would miss the offensive act comprised of the fact that FIRs were lodged in the first place! These were launched against OpIndia editor Nupur J Sharma, her husband Vaibhav Sharma, portal founder and CEO Rahul Roushan, and former editor of its Hindi division Ajeet Bharti. The cases invoked charges relating to promoting enmity between religious groups, outraging religious feelings, attempt to provoke breach of peace and defamation. Despite the State’s gesture, the SCI took a welcome opportunity to make a number of pertinent general observations on the matter. It is the settled law that the considered observations, (obiter dicta) by the SCI are binding law.