SC brings up ‘Brutus’ during marine case hearing
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday referred to Brutus from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar while dealing with the alleged violation of naval guards by Italian ambassador Daniele Mancini to bring back two marines facing trial in India.
Attorney general G E Vahanvati read out the March 15 note verbale from the Italian embassy demanding complete immunity and freedom of movement, including travelling out of India, for Mancini and indirectly questioning the authority of the Supreme Court to restrain him from going out of the country.
The note verbale started with a reminder and said the embassy "has the honour to remind the ministry of external affairs of the obligations relating to the protection of diplomatic agents enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18, 1961".
As Vahanvati read the word "honour", the bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, which made clear its displeasure over the breach of undertaking by Mancini, asked the AG not to mention "honour" in the communication.
Justice Kabir said, "This reminds us of the word 'honourable' used to describe Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar." The CJI did not elaborate. But it explained the feelings of the court on breach of a sovereign undertaking by Italy and a personal undertaking by Mancini to bring back the two marines after the four-week leave beginning on February 22.
In Shakespeare's play, Marcus Brutus was a close friend of Caesar. Another character Cassius refers to Brutus as a "noble" and "honourable" character. But finding Brutus joining a group of conspiring senators plotting Caesar's assassination because of the rumour about Caesar turning Rome into a monarchy, Cassius says, "Yet I see that your honourable character can be bent from its usual shape, which proves that good men should stick only to the company of other good men, because who is so firm that he can't be seduced?"
When the senators launch a mortal attack on Caesar and finding his close friend among the assassins, Caesar exclaims, "Et Tu Brutus (You too Brutus!)."
The bench said some people had written that the Supreme Court was naive to let the marines go on the ambassador's personal undertaking. "Were we naive? Should we have not accorded importance to a sovereign guarantee and a personal guarantee from an ambassador? If we act in furtherance to a sovereign guarantee, are we naive," the bench asked.
This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has permitted foreign nationals, facing criminal cases in India, to visit their country on the basis of undertakings from diplomats.
Three Chinese - Wu Chuannan, Wang Weiqing and Liu Gaoxuan - were repeatedly permitted by the Supreme Court between 2010 and 2012 to go out of the country after the consul general of China in Kolkata gave undertaking.
The court had recorded no objection from Chhattisgarh standing counsel Atul Jha and permitted the Chinese to go to their country, which included two weeks to two of them to get married, on the assurance given by the power company they worked for, the consul general's undertaking and a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore.
But the Chinese never breached their undertaking or assurances as is the case of Italy now before the Supreme Court.
SC brings up ‘Brutus’ during marine case hearing - The Times of India
Yeah....like we are Afganistan.....
To even think that INDIA and NATO are going to war for this matter is utter nonsence. Only a stupid like you will dream about this.
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