SC hears out women who threw slippers at a judge

   A bench of Justices Altmas Kabir, G.S. Singhvi and R.M. Lodha on Tuesday heard out the grievances of the four members of BOSS music school in Mumbai despite Solicitor General Goolam E. Vahanvati expressing his reservations at the members' eccentric pleas like "shutting down of Bombay High Court after arresting its 13 judges and giving them death penalties".

”There is a limit to patience and tolerance,” said Vahanvati.

“The question is how much this court will tolerate. If this court does not stand for its own right (to be protected against such scandalous allegations) it will lower its dignity and majesty,” he said.

The bench, however, continued to hear out the grievances of the four women.

After hours of ranting and raving it transpired that parents of Aneete Kotian, an electronic engineer and a Boss school member, were not happy with their daughter joining the institute and developing an “obsessive liking” for music. They also suspected “the school members indulged in black magic and witchcraft”.

They, along with some more parents of children learning music, approached the Bombay High Court making the same allegations that students were displaying "abnormal obsession" for music.

The high court eventually ordered a probe and found that there was no truth in the allegations of black magic or witchcraft practice.

But during the hearing, the high court noticed the paranoid behaviour of the Boss school members, including its director Pavitra Murli, and ordered their “deprogramming” or psychological tests.

It was apparently this order for “deprogramming” that aggravated the paranoia of the Boss School members and they began suspecting “the judges to be indulging in genocide”, which they said means ruining their lives.

The court, after hearing out the four women, adjourned the matter for July 16.

On the next hearing the court will also decide whether to convict them for committing contempt of court by hurling a slipper at Justice Arijit Pasayat March 20.

During the hearing, the women confessed that they had thrown a slipper at the judge “to make the court hear their grievances”.

The court scrapped an order passed by its registry to keep the apex court's various offices out of bound to these women due to their propensity to hurl shoes.

“One does not behave in the way you have. No one throws a slipper. But you take out your slipper and throw it. Because of your action, many other people have suffered (owing to the order regulating the access to the court),” the bench remarked.