The Attorney General K.K. Venugopal has received a letter from a lawyer in Delhi asking for his approval to file criminal contempt charges against Justice (Ret.) S.N. Dhingra and Senior Advocates Aman Lekhi and K. Rama Kumar for disparaging the Indian judiciary in response to the decision against suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma. In response to the disturbing statements made by Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala regarding the recent beheading of Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, the trio made scathing remarks.
The Attorney General was asked to order the prosecution of Justice Dhingra and the two Senior Advocates for criminal contempt under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, as read with Rule 3(c) of The Rules To Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of Supreme Court, 1975, in a letter written by Supreme Court attorney C.R. Jaya Sukin.
According to the letter, the statements by Justice Dhingra and the two Senior Advocates were meant to embarrass the Supreme Court and raise questions about its integrity. The letter described the Supreme Court as the nation’s first interpreter and defender of the Constitution. The comments made by these individuals were meant to devalue the Court and its ability to dispense justice.
The news comes days after Saket Gokhale, a spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress, asked the attorney general for permission to accuse Opindia falsely and its editor-in-chief Nupur Sharma of challenging the controversial statements made by Justices Kant and Pardiwala.
In a piece, OpIndia claimed that the judges’ remarks had given the Islamists more confidence.
On July 2, 2022, Justice Dhingra said in an interview with a media outlet that the Supreme Court has no right to make such comments regarding Sharma. Additionally, he claimed in the letter that the Supreme Court made a charge and rendered a decision without consulting Nupur Sharma.
It also alluded to the comments made by Senior Attorney Aman Lekhi. “The oral observations of the Supreme Court stating that Nupur seems to be the only responsible for the situation defies reality,” Lekhi said in media Verdictum on July 1.
In a recent interview with a news outlet, retired justice SN Dhingra said that a judge should run for office if he wants to give speeches. SN Dhingra enquired as to why the Supreme Court’s oral observations were left out of the written order.
“The Supreme Court would have included those comments as a part of the written order if it had the guts to do so. The petition is only described as being dismissed as withdrawn in the Supreme Court’s order. He had asked, “Why?
“This sends a terrible message to the country that the Supreme Court itself is high on power and that nobody can stop the Supreme Court from saying anything at its own will,” continued SN Dhingra.