Friday 15 September 2017

Can A Kashmir CJM Defy SC? The Curious Case Of Criminal Defamation Against Madhu Kishwar

A pro-separatist editor, Shujaat Bukhari, targets Madhu Kishwar for four tweets, and the lower judiciary in Kashmir turns activist.
On 26 August, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Srinagar, Aijaz Ahmad Khan, issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Manushi editor Madhu Kishwar, currently national professor at the Indian Council of Social Science Research. This was meant to be punishment for Kishwar’s non-appearance in the Srinagar CJM’s court on that day in a defamation suit filed against her by Shujaat Bukhari, owner-editor of Rising Kashmir, in December 2016.
The arrest warrant is contrary to a Supreme Court order of 24 August, whereby the highest court had exempted Kishwar and her lawyer from physical appearance in the Srinagar court. This action by the court follows three other questionable orders issued from the start of the case in December 2016.
Since the CJM’s orders against Kishwar went against well-defined guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court regarding the personal appearance of the accused in defamation cases, Kishwar had approached the Supreme Court for relief, and got this order dated 24 August 2017:
“Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, we direct that the petitioner may be permitted to participate in the proceedings by video conferencing from a Delhi court. If video conferencing facility is not available in the district court in question then the proceedings may take place at any appropriate nearest place or court as per the direction of the Chief Justice of the High Court.”
This order was handed over to the CJM, Srinagar, at the hearing held on 26 August by a Srinagar-based lawyer who represented Kishwar on that day. And yet the CJM, Khan, passed the following order in Urdu in brazen violation of the Supreme Court order:
“Complainant with his advocate was present. Accused was absent. Mulzimkoba-ijra warrant giraftari. Bila-wajah zamanat talab.”
But first, some background. The cause of this defamation case is dubious. Bukhari, the owner-editor of a separatist-leaning Kashmiri paper, had filed a criminal defamation suit against Kishwar for four tweets in which the latter had commented on the pro-Pakistan slant of Kashmiri newspapers, including Rising Kashmir. Here are the tweets that gave rise to the criminal defamation case.

Madhu Kishwar

Madhu Kishwar
इक उम्र असर होने तक… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …اک عمر اثر ہونے تک