The News Minute | February 11, 2015 | 05:06 pm IST Last November, CPM leader MV Jayarajan was convicted for his infamous “shumbhan” (the Malayalam equivalent of idiot) remark against two judges who banned roadside meetings in 2013. Now former Supreme Court Judge and Press Council Chairman Markandey Katju have budged in to say that the punishment was unfair.In a long post that Katju put up on his official Facebook page, he says –“In a recent judgment, a bench of the Indian Supreme Court convicted a Kerala ex-MLA for contempt of court for calling some judges fools, and sentenced him to four weeks imprisonment.In my opinion this judgment is incorrect, totally unacceptable in a democracy, and violates the freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.In a democracy the people are supreme and all authorities, whether President or Prime Minister of India, other ministers, judges, legislators, bureaucrats, police, army and so on are servants of the people. Since the person are the masters and judges their servants, the people have a right to criticize judges just as a master has the right to criticize his servant.”In his post Katju further summarizes how he when once confronted by a similar incident laughed off the episode as just an “occupational hazard” of working in a democracy.Katju continues to remark that Indian judges shouldn’t be “so touchy”.He also cites an old case in which former Kerala Chief Minister EMS Namboodiripad was punished for saying that the courts favored the rich. Read the full post here. Post by Markandey Katju.TweetFollow @thenewsminute