Italy envoy can be tried for contempt of court

The Italian ambassador to India can be held for contempt of court by the Supreme Court in the case of the two absconding Italian marines, says Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.

He said that the ambassador, Daniele Mancini, cannot invoke diplomatic immunity because by giving an undertaking to the Supreme Court for the marines to go home to vote and assuring their return, he has accepted the jurisdiction of the Indian judiciary.

The ambassador can be now detained through house arrest and not be allowed to leave the country.He said that Article 129 and Article 131 of the Indian Constitution provide legal basis for action against the Italian envoy.

According to Article 129, the Supreme Court can overrule international covenants though not over legislation of other sovereign countries, and Article 131 says that the covenants that have come into existence after the Constitution was promulgated have no precedence in the legal sense. In the case of diplomatic immunity, the Vienna Convention that guarantees it came into existence in 1961 while the Indian Constitution was promulgated in 1950. The Constitution will then have precedence over the convention.

Jaitley and party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad refused to comment on the fact that it was not the government but the Supreme Court order that enabled the two marines to go home for Christmas and then go home a second time to vote.

Prasad directed his questions to the government about the marines going home, and as to what was the law that allowed for the foreign under-trials parole to go home for festivals and for voting without raising the issue as to why the Supreme Court did not take these issues into consideration. Prasad said: “We would not like to comment on the Hon’ble court’s verdict.”

But he went on to say that there can be a meaningful critique of the court’s decision.Prasad pointed out that there were more than 3000 foreign under-trials in Indian prisons and none of them got the privileged treatment that was extended to the Italian marines. He also said that the central government showed uncharacteristic alacrity by removing the marines from the jurisdiction of the Kerala courts and brought them to Delhi.

@ParsaJr