Attorney General Okay Okay Venugopal has refused sanction to provoke contempt proceedings in opposition to former Delhi High Court decide S N Dhingra and two others for criticising the Supreme Court over its oral observations in opposition to suspended BJP chief Nupur Sharma. In a letter, advocate C R Jaya Sukin had sought the AG’s consent to provoke legal contempt of court docket in opposition to Dhingra, former further solicitor normal Aman Lekhi and senior advocate Okay Rama Kumar for calling the highest court docket’s observations in Nupur Sharma’s case “irresponsible, illegal and unfair”.
Venugopal mentioned the statements made by the three individuals had been neither “vituperative or abusive” nor had been they more likely to intrude with the administration of justice by the Supreme Court.
“I have gone through your request seeking consent to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt against Justice (retd) S N Dhingra, Mr Aman Lekhi and Mr K Rama Kumar senior advocate. I find that the statements made by three persons, who are in the realm of fair comment, on a hearing conducted by the Supreme Court.
“The statements are not vituperative or abusive nor are they likely to interfere with the administration of justice by the Supreme Court of India. It may be noted that the Supreme Court, in a large number of judgements, has held that fair and reasonable criticism of judicial proceedings would not constitute contempt of court,” the AG mentioned in his letter. Venugopal mentioned he was not happy that the criticism made by the three individuals named within the letter was with malice or an try and impair the administration of justice.
“I am not satisfied that the criticism made by the three persons named in your letter is with malice or is an attempt to impair the administration of justice, or that it was a deliberate and motivated attempt to bring down the image of the judiciary. In the circumstances, I accordingly decline consent to initiate proceedings to criminal contempt of the Supreme Court,” he mentioned.
A trip bench of justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala had on July 1 severely reprimanded Sharma for her remark in opposition to Prophet Mohammad, saying her “loose tongue” has “set the entire country on fire” and that she was “single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country”.
Refusing to entertain Sharma’s plea for clubbing of FIRs lodged in varied states in opposition to her for the comment, the bench had mentioned that the remark was made both for affordable publicity, political agenda, or some nefarious actions.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”