Supreme Court Initiates Proceedings on Lawyer’s Letter Seeking Contempt Action Against Kerala Congress Over Post About CJI
Advocate Vineet Jindal’s letter also prayed for an inquiry into security setup in relation to the protest march led by opposition leaders outside the Supreme Court on October 12.
The letter praying for initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) for a social media post targeting Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has been entered as a writ petition in the Supreme Court.
The letter sent to the CJI by advocate Vineet Jindal on October 13, was registered as civil writ petition No 9397 of 2023 on October 30. The petition has not yet been listed for hearing before a Bench.
The contentious post targeting the CJI had appeared on the official X handle of Congress Kerala on October 12. The post stated,
“Dear Surya Kant, If law and order is not your jurisdiction, resign yourself now. We shall find someone who can take care.”
The tweet was deleted minutes after it was published.
In his letter, Vineet Jindal wrote that the office of the CJI “cannot be treated as one whose continuance is subject to the approval or displeasure of any political organisation.”
He added that the post raises questions whether it is within the limits of permissible political criticism or goes beyond it and warrants examination under law relating to criminal contempt of court.
In the same letter, he had also brought attention to the political demonstration outside the Supreme Court premises on October 12 involving Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders. He had sought for directions to examine if any restricted area was trespassed without authorisation or if any security protocol was violated.
However, Vineet Jindal clarified in the letter.
“The mere holding of a peaceful demonstration, the shouting of political slogans at a place where they have a lawful right to be or the appearance of political leaders near the Supreme Court of India does not, by itself establish contempt of court or any other offence,” the letter read.
He prayed for direction for preservation of CCTV footage, access-control registers and security deployment records so that any inquiry is based on factual evidence and not hearsay, incomplete videos or biased versions of what transpired on the day of the incident.
The development comes after the KPCC recently issued an unconditional apology to the CJI. In a letter dated October 22 responding to a legal notice sent by Supreme Court Bar Association Joint Secretary Meenesh Dubey, KPCC President Sunny Joseph said that the tweet was published by Congress worker Vijay Thottathil without the knowledge, consent or consultation of the leadership.
Thottathil has been expelled from the party and relieved from his duties, read the statement.
In a related development, on October 15 a Bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had issued notice to Congress party, Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the INDIA bloc on a plea by four lawyers challenging the October 12 march.
The plea had also sought initiation of contempt proceedings against the Congress over the Kerala post, but the Bench refused to issue notice.
“No contempt today. We are only issuing notice. Let us see what the response is, and then we will take it forward,” CJI Surya Kant had said.
