Hidayatullah, C. J. - (1.) Mr. E. M. S. Nemboodiripad (former Chief Minister of Kerala) has filed this appeal against his conviction and sentence of Rs. 1000/- fine or simple imprisonment for one month by the High Court of Kerala for contempt of Court. The judgment, February 9, 1968, was by majority - Mr. Justice Raman Nair (now Chief Justice) and Mr. Justice Krishnamoorthy Iyer formed the majority. Mr. Justice Mathew dissented. The case has been certified by them as fit for appeal to this Court under Article 134 (1) (c) of the Constitution.
(2.) The conviction is based on certain utterances of the appellant, when he was Chief Minister, at a Press Conference held by him at Trivandrum, on November 9, 1967. The report of the Press Conference was published the following day in some Indian newspapers. The proceedings were commenced in the High Court on the sworn information of an Advocate of the High Court, based mainly on the report in the Indian Express. The appellant showed cause against the notice sent to him and in an elaborate affidavit stated that the report 'was substantially correct, though it was incomplete in some respects.'
(3.) The offending parts of the Press Conference will be referred to in this judgment, but we may begin by reading it as a whole. This is what was reported. "Marx and Engels considered the judiciary as an instrument of oppression and even today when the State set-up has not undergone any change it continues to be so, Mr. Nambudiripad told a news conference this morning. He further said that Judges are guided and dominated by class hatred, class interest and class prejudices and where the evidence is balanced between a well dressed post-bellied rich man and a poor ill-dressed and illiterate person the Judge instinctively favours the former, the Chief Minister alleged. The Chief Minister said that election of Judges would be a better arrangement, but unless the basic Step set-up is changed, it could not solve the problem. Referring to the Constitution the Chief Minister said the oath he had taken was limited only to see that the constitutional provisions are practised. 'I have not taken any oath' the Chief Minister said "that every word and every clause in the Constitution is sacred." Before that he had also taken an oath Mr. Nambudiripad said, holding aloft a copy of the Marxist party's programme and read out extracts from it to say that the oath (party - Ed.) had always held that nothing much could be done under the limitations of the Constitution. Raising this subject of Constitution and judiciary suo motu at the fag end of his news conference the Chief Minister said so many reports have appeared in the press that Marxists like himself, Mr. A. K. Gopalan, and Mr. Imbichi Baba (Transport Minister) were making statements critical of the judiciary "presumably with the idea that anything spoken about the court is contempt of court". His party had always taken the view, the Chief Minister said, that Judiciary is part of the class rule of the ruling classes. And there are limits to the sanctity of the judiciary. The judiciary is weighted against workers, peasants and other sections of the working classes and the law and the system of judiciary essentially serve the exploiting classes. Even where the judiciary is separated from the executive it is still subject to the influence and pressure of the executive. To say this is not wrong. The judiciary he argued was only an institution like the President or Parliament or the Public Service Commission. Even the President is subject to impeachment. After all, sovereignty rested not with any one of them but with the people. Even with regard to Judges confidential records are being kept - why The judge is subject to his own idiosyncrasies and prejudices. "We hold the view that they are guided by individual idiosyncrasies, guided and dominated by class interests, class hatred, and class prejudices. In these conditions we have not pledged ourselves not to criticise the judiciary or even individual judgments." This did not mean, he explained, that they could challenge the integrity of the individual judge or cast reflections on individual judgments, the Chief Minister contended. He did not subscribe to the view that it was an aspersion on integrity when he said that judges are guided and dominated by class hatred and class prejudices. "The High Court and the Supreme Court can haul me up, if they want" he said". ;