File photo of former Press Council chairman Markandey Katju.
The Supreme Court today refused to scrap a Parliament resolution that condemned Justice Markandey Katju for his comments against Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose.
The former Press Council chairman's comment against the Indian freedom movement icons amounted to defamation, the top court said, saying it doesn't think the Parliament resolution violated his free speech rights.
"Justice Katju is entitled to his view but the Parliament and others may disagree. If there is one action, it must be against Justice Katju for writing this article. What he said about Mahatma and Bose amount to defamation," the Supreme Court said.
However due to persistent arguments of his lawyer Gopal Subramanian, the court has appointed Fali S Nariman as an adviser to assist the court and asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to be present in the next hearing.
The Parliament in March this year had
adopted a unanimous resolution condemning Justice Katju's blog post that called Mahatma Gandhi "a British agent" and Subhash Chandra Bose "a Japanese agent".
Justice Katju says before condemning him, the Parliament should have given him a hearing.
During today's hearing, the Supreme Court told Justice Katju's lawyer: "Has the resolution taken away your right to speech? The moment you put your views in public domain you must be mentally ready for condemnation."