Author Arundhati Roy was yesterday issued a criminal contempt notice by the Bombay High Court, for her views on the arrest of Delhi University professor G N Saibaba and the rejection of his bail plea earlier this year.

The Indian Express reports that the court said Roy appeared to believe that she was "above the law'. The court made the observation while rejecting Saibaba's bail plea on Wednesday.

The Gadchiroli police arrested Saibaba last year for alleged links with Maoists. He has been on bail since June, extended later till December 31. Roy had expressed her views on the arrest in an article published this May in Outlook magazine.

Terming her language in the article as "nasty', the judge wondered if one could relate it to the awards she has won.

"Calling the government and police as being 'afraid' of the applicant, 'abductor' and 'thief', and the magistrate from a 'small town', demonstrate the surly, rude and boorish attitude of the author in a most tolerant country like India,' Justice A B Chaudhari of the HC's Nagpur bench observed.

The article, which Justice Chaudhari said contained "scurrilous' remarks against the police, the state machinery and the judiciary, has been reproduced in his judgment.