Bal Thackeray sentenced to one week in prison

The Bombay high court on Friday sentenced Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to one week in prison for committing contempt of court.

The sentence has been suspended for a fortnight to allow Thackeray to appeal against the verdict to the Supreme Court.

Thackeray and seven newspapers were accused of committing criminal contempt of court for publishing the Sena chief's statement at a party rally on October 21 in Bombay claiming that a judge had demanded Rs 3.5 million for favouring a litigant.

Among the newspapers cited for contempt were The Times of India, Economic Times, the Asian Age, the Hindustan Times, Lokmat, Loksatta and the Sena daily, Saamna.

Justices Ashok Desai and S B Mhase also imposed a fine of Rs 2.000 on Thackeray. A similar sentence of one week in prison and a fine of Rs 2,000 was also awarded to Sanjay Raut and Subhash Desai, Saamna's columnist and publisher respectively.

The judges also held Thackeray guilty of criminal contempt in his capacity as Saamna's editor for publishing his own statement which, they said, amounted to scandalising the court and causing obstruction to the administration of justice. Both sentences will run concurrently.

The judges, however, let off the editors, printers and publishers of The Times of India, Economic Times, Loksatta and Lokmat without imposing any sentence upon their tendering an apology but warned them against publishing such statements.

However, the court referred the cases of these newspapers to the Press Council of India for appropriate action at the council's level.

The court, however, dropped cases against the Asian Age and the Hindustan Times by observing that the two newspapers did not publish Thackeray's statement while reporting his speech.

Justice Desai, the senior judge, delivered the judgment on behalf of the court packed with lawyers, litigants and media personnel. After pronouncing them guilty, the judges heard the counsel for Thackeray, Desai and Raut on the quantum of punishment.

On their submission, he suspended the implementation of the jail term for two weeks to enable the trio to appeal to the Supreme Court, but ordered them to pay the fine of Rs 2,000 each immediately. ''We will return the fine if you succeed in the appeal," Justice Desai told Sharad Bobde, Thackeray's counsel.