Supreme Court issues contempt notice to office-bearers of KPCC for online post targeting CJI

Underlining that “the independence of the judiciary is not a matter of political convenience”, the Supreme Court on Friday issued a contempt show-cause notice against all Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office-bearers over a now-deleted social media post targeting Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi said court judgments are always open to criticism but freedom of expression cannot become a shield for intimidation or interference with the administration of justice. The SC was hearing a petition filed by Advocate Vineet Jindal seeking suo motu contempt of court proceedings in connection with the October 12 viral social media post.

“The present matter concerns certain remarks directed against the Hon’ble CJI attributed to the social media account of a political organisation. The Constitution is supreme…” said the bench.

It underscored the supremacy of the judiciary’s independence saying it is not a matter of political convenience. “It is a constitutional guarantee owed to the Republic…”

The bench said no person can be allowed to pollute the stream of justice, however high their position, “Judicial restraint must never be mistaken for institutional weakness. Any attempt to undermine the authority of the Court requires to be dealt with iron hand”.

“… we consider it appropriate to examine whether the material warrants exercise of this Court’s jurisdiction under Article 129 of the Constitution of India (which empowers the SC to punish for contempt).”

The court directed that notice be issued not only to the KPCC president, but to all its office-bearers

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Appearing for the respondents, Senior Advocate Ramesh Babu said the post “was uploaded without the approval or consent of the office bearers”.

“Unconditionally, we are tendering an apology…On the same day it came to the notice of the Committee, it was taken down…” Babu said.