MESSAGE BOARD
NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Jethmalani reacts sharply to SC criticism

A defiant Law Minister Ram Jethmalani reacted sharply on Friday to the Supreme Court's criticism of remarks by Union ministers on the Bal Thackeray case saying he knew law "as well as anyone else".

"The learned chief justice should at least have realised that he was making comments about a minister who knows his law as well as anyone else," Jethmalani said in a statement from Bombay.

The apex court today severely criticised the statements made by some ministers against sanction given by Maharashtra government for prosecution of Shiv Sena chief saying these were in conflict with the Centre's stand before the court that action on the Srikrishna Commission report was the sole prerogative of the state government.

Taking exception to the observations made by Chief Justice A S Anand, the law minister said "In all fairness, I should have been invited to throw light which in the past has often illuminated judicial minds. I will certainly do so if the court so desires."

Jethmalani said he had not made any comment on the Srikrishna Commission report or the proceedings pending in the apex court but "as a citizen, as an experienced lawyer and as the minister of law and justice, I conceive it to be my right as well as duty to point out to all concerned what the correct legal position is."

Claiming that the Maharashtra government's move to prosecute Thackeray for a specific offence did not form part of apex court proceedings, Jethmalani said since the observations by the chief justice were "likely to create terrible misunderstanding and failure of justice it is best to put the record straight".

Meanwhile, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said Union ministers should "speak in one voice" to avoid "embarrassment" to the government.

"If ministers purport to speak on behalf of the government then they should speak in one voice. If ministers have a different view, then they should make it very clear it is their individual view," he told Star News.

"There has been no indictment," he said reacting to the court's observations.

Tell us what you think of this report