On 15th January 2002, Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Justice R.P.Sethi of the Supreme Court of India heard arguments in the contempt case againstwriter Arundhati Roy. As on every previous occasion when this particular casehas come up for hearing, no visitors or journalists (other than officiallyaccredited Court Correspondents) were allowed entry into the court. TheRegistrar said that he had ‘orders from above’ in this case not to allowentry to anyone. The issue was raised with the Bench, but they did not think itnecessary to take any steps to rectify this serious breach of the fundamentalprinciple of open courtrooms and public justice, and the case proceeded to theexclusion of any independent observers or journalists. After a day long hearing,the court reserved judgement till 6th March 2002, and asked Roy to bepresent in Court on that day. The maximum sentence for criminal contempt ofcourt is six months imprisonment.