New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced three men to three-months imprisonment after they were held guilty of contempt of court for leveling “scurrilous and scandalous allegations” against sitting apex court judges observing that it was a “concerted effort to virtually hold the judiciary to ransom“.
A two-member bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said, “In view of the scurrilous and scandalous allegations leveled against the judges of this court and no remorse being shown by any of the contemnors, we are of the considered view that they cannot be let off leniently.”
Contempt of court often referred to simply as “contempt”, is the offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the court.
The three men who have been sentenced include Indian Bar Association national president Nilesh Ojha, its Maharashtra and Goa state unit chief Vijay Kurle and Human Rights Security Council national secretary Rashid Khan Pathan. The contemnors had made serious allegations against Justices R.F. Nariman and Vineet Saran in a contempt case against Mumbai-based lawyer Mathew J. Nedumpara.
Meanwhile, one of these men filed an application seeking recusal of Justice Gupta citing that the bench is in a hurry to decide the matter. However, the application was dismissed. They also filed a recall of the judgment, which held them guilty. “No recall application can lie on these grounds and the proper remedy for the contemnors is to file a review petition if so advised. We, therefore, reject all the three recall applications as being not maintainable without expressing any opinion on the grounds raised therein,” said the top court.
“One of us (Deepak Gupta, J) is to demit office on May 6, 2020, and, therefore, the matter had to be heard and we see no ground for one of us to rescues. The application is accordingly rejected,” it said, while also dismissing another application seeking adjournment in the matter.
The Supreme Court also observed that none of them argued on the sentence.
The court observed that there is not an iota of remorse or any semblance of apology on behalf of the contemnors. “Since they have not argued on the sentence, we have to decide the sentence without the assistance of the individuals charged guilty,” the court said.
However, keeping in view the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown conditions, the court directed that this sentence shall come into force after 16 weeks from Wednesday when the contemnors should surrender before the Secretary-General of the top court to undergo the imprisonment sentence. Otherwise, warrants for their arrest shall be issued, said the court.
In its April 27 verdict, the top court had said that citizens can criticize the judgments but no one has the right to attribute motives or question the bonafide of judges. It had said that any attempt to browbeat judges have to be dealt with sternly.
Last month, the apex court had held the trio guilty of contempt of court for scandalizing the judiciary by leveling baseless allegations. The bench had observed that such allegations had to be dealt with sternly.
There were also cases last year where a lawyer had made allegations against the judges of a court and was awarded 3 months jail for it. In another case, a man was jailed for 3 months for foul-mouthing a judge.
