contempt

Bhatia has long led a campaign, the facts of which are hard to substantiate, against a former RAW chief for sexual harassment, regularly alleging the complicity of a series of judicial members and many others.

The Economic Times reported:

Supreme Court: Supreme Court to hear contempt pleas against Karni Sena on Jan 29

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that the

After the Supreme Court slapped him with suo motu contempt charges, Calcutta high court Justice CS Karnan has written a letter dated yesterday to the Supreme Court, vowing to file a criminal case against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and another Supreme Court judge under the SC / ST Atrocities Act for allegedly victimising him because of his caste.

A seven apex court judge bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar, with justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur, PC Ghose and Kurian Joseph have today withdrawn all judicial and administrative work from Calcutta high court judge Justice CS Karnan, according to PTI.

Former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju has begun blogging about the judiciary again, despite his run-in with the Supreme Court’s rather draconian contempt powers had left him on the ropes, giving a strategic unconditional apology (which the apex court accepted on 7 January, having asserted its dominance over its former brother judge).

Ex-Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju has offered a two-page apology to the Supreme Court, saying he would be prepared to read it out in person in open court if required, in marked contrast to his belligerence last month after he accused the Supreme Court of conducting a surgical strike on him to humiliate him (which, perhaps, was kind of true in their suo motu contempt action against him for one of his many blog posts that were critical-cum-offensive against the judiciary).

With his Art of Living Foundation (AoL) yet to pay the major chunk of "environment compensation" for its cultural fest on the Yamuna floodplains, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was on Thursday slapped with a contempt suit for "alleged disrespect shown by him to the orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT)".

Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur today said that he would examine the plea of advocate Mrinal Kanti Mandal, against whom Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi’s had ordered action by bar councils after Mandal had requested Gogoi’s recusal.

Today, Sahara’s Subrata Roy has spent two years in jail for contempt of court, reports Mint , in an in-depth retrospective of the case by Shreeja Sen.

Roy has written a book, reportedly found some peace and managed to repay Rs 4,000 crore of the 10,000 the Supreme Court required him to give back to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The next hearing in the case is on 29 March.

On 18 February 2016, Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi passed an order referring the conduct of an advocate to the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Delhi bar council for “taking up appropriate action in respect of” conduct that “cannot be appreciated”.

The Delhi high court took serious exception to its two-judge bench being called a “Dedh Bench (one-and-a-half bench) by advocate Deepak Khosla and ruled, last week, that he was in criminal contempt of the court.

Just before noon on 17 February, when the bench comprising justices J Chelameswar and AM Sapre was hearing ND Jayaprakash’s petition against the Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi Police, seeking protection to the accused, his counsel and journalists in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sedition case at the Metropolitan court, advocate Rajiv Yadav shouted the beginning of the “national song” vande mataram (I praise thee, mother), disturbing the court proceedings.

Advocate Pradeep Dwivedi, represented by advocate Anupam Dwivedi, has filed a criminal contempt and sedition complaints against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly using “defamatory and seditious” words against prime minister Narendra Modi, which would spread disharmony,reported Firstpost:

"On 15 December, 2015, the accused posted the remarks on his Twitter account which reads as, ‘Modi is a coward and a psychopath’. The remarks were made against the democratically elected Prime Minister of the largest democracy of the world,” it said.

The complainant alleged that Kejriwal had “intentionally” used defamatory words with a view to spreading a sense of “hatred and contempt” towards the prime minister.

They seek prosecution of Kejriwal from Delhi metropolitan magistrate Jagminder Singh, who posted the matter for 26 February clarification arguments.

In the ongoing Extra Judicial Execution of Victim Families Association vs Union of India, being heard by justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit, the Attorney General had alleged that an article published in The People’s Chronicle (English) and Poknapham (Manipuri) carried certain “highly objectionable statements” by Babloo Loitongbam, who has been reporting the case.

The Bombay high court has issued a criminal contempt notice against author Arundhati Roy on Wednesday commenting that she believed she was “above the law”, reported the Indian Express and others.

The contempt notice was issued for her views on the arrest of Delhi University professor G N Saibaba and the rejection of his bail plea, which was published in Outlook magazine earlier this year.

The court issued the notice while rejecting Saibaba’s bail plea on Wednesday who was arrested last year for alleged links with Maoists. He has been on bail since June, extended later till 31 December.

Justice A B Chaudhari of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court commented on the language in the article as “nasty” and was quoted as saying that “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.”

Roy’s article was also reproduced in the judgment.

Chaudhari also read into the article to have a “game plan” to secure an order in Saibaba’s favour and said that the article was written with “prima facie with a mala fide motive to interfere in the administration of justice.....The author has even gone to the extent of scandalising and questioning the credibility of the higher judiciary by giving examples of the orders of bail granted to Babu Bajrangi, Maya Kodnani and Amit Shah.”

She has to reply to the notice by 25 January 2016.

Kerala high court judge Justice PD Rajan has punished two police constables with contempt for accidentally addressing him colloquially outside of court, ordering them to copy the police manual by hand as punishment while standing in court all day.

Advocate Seema Sapra, who has long-alleged that General Electric and its agents are trying to poison her in retaliation for whistleblowing over alleged corruption at the multinational’s India offices, has been sentenced to prison for a month by the Delhi high court for contempt.

"For those of you who follow former Supreme Court Justice and former Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman, Justice Katju on Facebook, you would have learnt two things over the last couple of months: first he’s holidaying in the US with family and second he’s making very serious allegations of corruption against the sitting Chief Justice of India HL Dattu...”

“So, for Justice Katju to accuse the sitting CJI of corruption and not be served with a contempt notice, is indeed a big leap for the Indian judiciary – maybe they are finally open to the idea of some public scrutiny and criticism,” asks Prashant Reddy in The Hoot