1 On the 9th November 1967, the respondent, who is the Chief Minister of this State, held a press conference, and a report of what he said at that conference appeared in the issue of the "Indian Express" of the 10th November as also in other newspapers. The report that appeared in the "Indian Express" has been referred to in the memorandum of charges served on the respondent as Ext. P1; and, in the counter affidavit filed by him, the respondent has stated that that report is substantially correct though incomplete in some respects. The following is the relevant portion of the report:
"Marx and Engels considered the judiciary as an instrument of oppression and even today when the State set up has not undergone any change it continues to be so, Mr. Nambudiripad told a news conference this morning. He further said that Judges are guided and dominated by class hatred, class interests and class prejudices and where the evidence is balanced between a well dressed pot bellied rich man and a poor, ill dressed and illiterate person the judge instinctively favours the former, the Chief Minister alleged.
The Chief Minister said that election of Judges would be a better arrangement, but unless the basic State setup is changed it could not solve the problem.
Referring to the Constitution the Chief Minister said the oath he had taken was limited only to see that the Constitutional provisions are practised. 'I have not taken any oath' the Chief Minister said 'that every word and every clause in the Constitution is sacred.
Before that he had also taken an oath, Mr. Nambudiripad said, holding aloft a copy of the Marxist Party's programme and read out extracts from it to say that the party had always held that nothing much could be done under the limitations of the Constitution.
Raising this subject of Constitution and judiciary suo motu at the fag end of his news conference the Chief Minister said so many reports have appeared in the press that Marxists like himself, Mr. A. K. Gopalan and Mr. Imbichi Bava (Transport Minister) were making statements critical of the judiciary 'presumably with the idea that anything spoken about the court is contempt of court.'
His party had always taken the view, the Chief Minister said that judiciary is part of the class rule of the ruling classes. And there are limits to the sanctity of the judiciary. The judiciary is weighted against workers, peasants and other sections of the working classes and the laws and the system of judiciary essentially serve the exploiting classes. Even where the judiciary is separated from the executive it is still subject to the influence and pressure of the executive. To say this is not wrong. The judiciary he argued was only an institution like the President or Parliament or the Public Service Commission. Even the President is subject to impeachment. After all, sovereignty rested not with any one of them but with the people. Even with regard to judges confidential records are being kept why? The judge is subject to his own idiosyncrasies and prejudices. 'We hold the View that they are guided by individual idiosyncrasies, guided and dominated by, class interests, class hatred, and class prejudices. In these conditions we have not pledged ourselves not to criticise the judiciary or even individual judgments.' This did not mean, he explained, that they could challenge the integrity of the individual judge or cast reflections on individual judgments, the Chief Minister contended.
He did not subscribe to the view that it was an aspersion on integrity when he said that Judges are guided and dominated by class hatred and class prejudices. 'The High Court and the Supreme Court can haul me up, if they want' he said." '
(A brief account that appeared in the "Mathrubhoomi" of the same date is also set out in the petitioner's affidavit. But we need not, concern ourselves with that since what is referred to in the memorandum of charges and is admitted by the petitioner to be correct is the report in