His decision in the sealing case follows the same trend. There is nothing odd or curious about his decision in the sealing cases — and the bench hearing the case after his retirement continues to pass orders in the same direction notwithstanding the hamhanded attempt by the government to browbeat the court manifested in the intemperate (and rehearsed) outburst of one of its law officers.

The allegations against him that sought to cast aspersions on his motives in deciding the sealing cases, pursued after his explanation, ought to have been treated with contempt rather than in the contempt jurisdiction.

I do not want to comment on the correctness of the judgment of the high court; that is a matter which would be sorted out in the appeal that would now be filed by the convicted scribes. The point is, even if the judgment is legally correct, was it the wise course of action? The situation is undoubtedly provocative yet one of the defining traditions of the court as an institution has been its restraint.

In a perfect world the intrusive methods of the Indian media would be an intolerable invasion of privacy and an unbearable encroachment on a citizen’s reputation. In contemporary India these methods have gone a long way in serving a larger cause of the fragile democracy of this nascent republic.

The action of the newspaper in publishing these allegations was clearly ill-devised. But in the circumstances, stern action of the kind taken by the court may have a “chilling effect” and may turn out to be a remedy worse than the disease.

... contd.