By L S Herdenia
BHOPAL: Mr. Justice P. B. Sawant who passed away in Pune few days ago, was a unique judge, totally committed to the values enshrined in the Constitution. His judgments helped consolidate the foundations of the Constitution. As a two-term Chairman of the Press Council of India he gave several verdicts which helped healthy media to have its way in fighting the onslaught by the government and anti-social and terrorist elements. He also did not spare the communal press.
Justice P B Sawant was born on June 30, 1930 at Mirya, Ratnagiri, and Maharashtra. He studied at Prabhu Seminary High School at Mumbai and gave his matriculation exam in 1948. His interest in studies and reading made him pursue studies beyond school. He chose to earn and learn at the same time. He sought admission to Siddhartha College and graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1952 with special honours in Economics, which remained his favourite subject. He was awarded the Sir Govind Madgaonkar Prize for Economics for standing first. After college he got a job at Reserve Bank of India as clerk. However he chose to study law simultaneously. He studied at Government Law College in the morning batch and completed his degree in 1956. He started practice in law in June 1957. He soon abandoned practice on 15th August in the same year and became a full-timer with Peasants and Workers Party. He was also working as one of the secretaries of Mill Workers’ Union. He resumed practice in the year 1961.
He appeared before the Panshet Dam Commission, which was appointed to enquire into Panshet Dam burst, on behalf of Pune citizens. He practiced on all sides except income tax laws. He was elevated to the bench of High Court, Bombay in March 1973 at the age of 42. As a Bombay High Court judge he passed several important judgments such as – right to commit suicide wherein in section 309 of the Indian penal code which makes attempt to commit suicide punishable was struck down as unconstitutional. This judgment discussed the right of an individual to die/euthanasia; his judgments on unjust enrichment led to amendment of the Excise Act. He upheld the validity of the Mathadi Kamgar Act and was appointed as the judge to enquire into the air crash at Santacruz airport in 1985.
He was elevated to the Supreme Court of India in 1989. He was a part of several landmark decisions of the Supreme Court including the famous Mandal commission judgment, judgment of the Constitution Bench in the matter of S. R. Bommai vs Union of India dealing with powers under Article 356(1) to dissolve a state assembly, BCCI vs. Union of India which declared air waves a public property; the case relating the rights of small fishermen in Kerala within 20 nautical miles to the exclusion of big mechanised fishing trawlers; Judgment in the case of T S Kerawala declaring the no-work-no-pay principle in labour jurisprudence. He was also appointed to head the three-man enquiry committee to probe charges against a then sitting Supreme Court judge.
After his retirement as a Supreme Court judge, he was appointed as the Chairman of Press Council of India and headed the council for two terms till 2002. He was also elected as the President of World Press Council.
He was also appointed to head the one-man commission to enquire into charges of corruption against four ministers and Anna Hazare.
He has headed the People’s Commission for enquiry into the Godhra riots in Gujarat. He also worked with a NGO called Lokshasan Andolan which is a people’s governance movement.
Justice Sawant has written books on varied subjects, some of which are ‘Human Rights in Retreat’, ‘A Grammar of Democracy’, ‘Media and Society’, ‘Judicial Independence- Myth and Reality’.
Sawant was awarded Indian Citizenship Award at the hands of Mother Teresa, the Rajrishi Shahu Award and Justice Ranade Award.
Justice Sawant’s verdict in a case put up before him in his capacity as the chairman of the Press Council of India stands testimony to his commitment to the values of secularism and democracy.
- Rajan, Chairman, and L.S. Herdenia, Secretary, Swami Pranavananda Journalism Trust of India, Bhopal in their complaint dated 29.7.1999 alleged that a section of the media had depicted Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, popularly known as Ali Mian, a renowned Arabic Scholar, as anti-national. He was accused of refusing to offer prayers for the soldiers/martyrs of Kargil at a Muslim conference held at Nadwa. Although the charges had been denied by the Maulana, the controversy still continued.
According to the complainant, the highly motivated reports published in several newspapers had resulted in inflaming communal passion. Even the English daily, ‘The Hindu’ carried a tendentious report portraying Ali Mian in the dark hues. The complainant further alleged that while the ‘Panchjanya’, Hindi weekly and ‘The Hindu’ had published news reports with communal overtones, the ‘Indian Express’ had done a commendable job by highlighting the facts about Ali Mian and questioning as to how he could have made a statement when he was unable to even walk or talk.
Stating that publication of reports with communal overtones, promoted communal hatred leading to violence and loss of lives, the complainant averred that though the Press Council of India had already formulated a code of conduct for the coverage of news pertaining to riots, the said code was being systematically violated, especially by regional newspapers. The report in Panchjanya was captioned “Yeh Kis Desh ke Nagrik Hai; Jab Sara Desh Kargil Par Bol Raha Tha Tab Ali Mian Ke Is Bayan Ka Matlub Kya Tha? ‘Aai Musalmano, ham aisi janwaron ke zindagi bitane ko hargish tayyar nahi hai, jinko sirf khana chahiye”.
The report that the Maulana who had issued a Fatwa against ‘Vande Mataram’ in the state has again landed in the controversy following his refusal to pray for the Kargil martyrs at a Muslim conference organized at his Religious/Educational Institute at Nadva. It also said that a controversial pamphlet was distributed at the said conference that called upon all Muslims to declare that they were not ready to lead the life of animals that only required food for living. It further stated that on behalf of Nadvi Ali Mian a denial has been issued stating that neither had any one appealed to him for the prayer and nor had he declined to do so.
The council set up an enquiry committee to inquire into the complaints. Since this complaint primarily lay against ‘Panchjanya’ for publishing the allegedly false and concocted report pertaining to a statement attributed to Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi @ Ali Mian, show-cause notice was issued to the respondent-editor, Panchjanya on 30.8.1999.
The Council observed that the impugned report, and the heading even more so, were provocative and likely to inflame communal distrust and hatred at a time when unity was the need for the hour. The denial in the report was not given sufficient prominence. The paper had thus irresponsibly and was guilty of breach of the norms of journalistic conduct regarding caution against communal writing. Under the circumstances, the committee recommended to the Council to warn Panchjanya, R.S.S., Hindi weekly, to refrain from publishing such news reports which are capable of creating tension among the communities.
The Press Council, on consideration of the records of the case and the report of the Inquiry Committee, accepted the reasons, findings and the recommendations of the Inquiry Committee and decided accordingly.
Ahead of the 200th commemoration of the battle of Koregaon Bhima, it was announced that Justice Sawant would be president of the controversial Elgaar Parishad to be held at the Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017. But he did not attend the Elgaar Parishad due to health reasons.
Following the police crackdown on the Elgaar Parishad for its alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist), Justice Sawant came out in the support of the accused persons arrested in this case.
In 2008, Justice Sawant had filed the Rs 100-crore defamation case against Times Now and its then editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. The channel had inadvertently carried a picture of Justice Sawant, in a report related to a PF fraud, instead of the phonetically similar sounding name of an accused in its bulletin.
The retired judge had won the case in the lower courts but the matter is in appeal in the Supreme Court. (IPA Service)
