Akansha Upadhyay
Published on – 26 November 2022 at 18:30 IST
The Supreme Court took umbrage at a petitioner calling an apex court judge a “terrorist” and directed the registry to issue him a show cause notice as to why he should not be charged with criminal contempt for “insulting” the judge. The court directed to issue show cause for the contempt of judicial members.
The bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli termed the allegations levelled by the man as deplorable and said, “You will have to be sent inside the jail for a few months, then you will realise.”
The bench reprimanded the man saying, “You cannot just make an allegation against a Supreme Court judge.”
The apex court was hearing an application filed by a person seeking early hearing in a pending service matter. An advocate appearing for the petitioner told the bench after going through the file that he had asked the petitioner to tender an unconditional apology for making such statement. The lawyer said that he would represent him only if the person tendered an unconditional apology.
The person did apologise for making such statement, adding that he was going through “tremendous mental trauma” when he had filed the application.
The bench was however was not pleased with the petitioner’s action and said that, “We will issue a notice to show cause to you why you should not be prosecuted for criminal contempt,”
The bench reprimands the petitioner for calling judge terrorist.
“What does the judge have to do with this proceeding? You are calling him a terrorist and other thing. Is this the way to make allegations against a judge?”
The bench said, asking, “Only because he happens to belong to your state?” “Shocking!” it remarked.
“We are not inclined to entertain the application for early hearing. The application shall stand dismissed,” the bench said.
It said the registry shall issue a show cause notice to the petitioner as to why he should not be prosecuted for criminal contempt for scandalizing a judge of this court, and listed the matter for hearing after three weeks.
The bench recorded that the petitioner has tendered an unconditional apology.
Further the bench added that to enable the court to assess whether the apology is genuine or not, it is giving the person three weeks to file an affidavit explaining his conduct.