Madras High Court has said that no one can deny corruption in the judiciary and there have been corrupt judges in the judiciary in the past and there are there even today. The vacation bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayana made this comment while rejecting a PIL filed by advocate RS Tamilvendan. The petition sought direction to the authorities to ban the screening of Tamil film Karuppu starring actor S Suriya and actress Trisha. The bench said that while addressing a legal conference held in Kollam, Kerala, former Chief Justice of India SP Bharucha had mentioned that 20 percent of the judges in the country were corrupt.
The court said that people still remember the shocking statement given by Bhushan, father and son. The bench said that we will not go so far nor support such a blanket statement. But we definitely know this and have come across such cases where corruption was found in the judiciary. The full bench of the Madras High Court has been regularly showing the way out to such corrupt practices. The bench said that the High Court had observed in High Court of Judicature at Bombay vs. V. Shirish Kumar Rangrao Patil that the cancer cells of corruption keep infiltrating the vital veins of the judiciary.
‘The responsibility of eliminating evil is also on the court’
The top court had also said that the onus lies on the judiciary itself to eliminate this evil through judicial surgery, which should be performed through self-control, corrective steps or disciplinary action under Article 235 of the Constitution.
The bench said that corruption cannot happen in the judiciary unless some members of the bar association are involved in corrupt activities. Keeping an eye on corruption and taking appropriate action against the culprits is part of the High Court’s continuous process of vigilant monitoring. The bench said that the subject of the film is a court located at a place called Seven Wells and the presiding officer has been shown to be corrupt. It is shown in the film that a corrupt lawyer influences the functioning of the court to a great extent.
‘Such scenes are common in Tamil films’
The bench said, the question for consideration is whether due to such depiction we should direct the authorities to ban the screening of the film. Our answer is clearly ‘no’. And there is more than one reason to reach this conclusion. The bench said that the main theme of the film is the unholy nexus between an unethical lawyer and a corrupt judge. The court also noted that Justice GR Swaminathan had also watched the film in a theater and the producer had not been asked to arrange any special screening for it.
The court said that the portrayal of the system in the film was certainly exaggerated, but such presentation was common in Tamil films. Like in movies, the hero single-handedly defeats dozens of villains who surround him. The court said that everything is dramatic in Tamil cinema. Therefore, Karuppu should also be seen from the same perspective. In any case, the artist has the right to present his point of view in his own way and this is artistic freedom.
The bench said that the Censor Board can refuse permission for public exhibition of a film on the ground that it involves an element of contempt of court. But when the Censor Board is not convinced that the film contains an element of contempt of court and has issued a certificate, the court cannot impose its opinion, the bench said.
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