Contempt of Court – Scandalous allegations made against High Court Judge – Transfer Petition was filed seeking transfer of a Criminal Petition from the High Court of Telangana to the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Nagpur Bench, wherein scandalous remarks were made against the High Court Judge hearing that matter – Dismissed – In view of the remarks made, contempt notice issued to the lawyersalleged contemnors (the lawyer for the petitioner, the Advocate-on-Record who had filed the petition and the lawyer who had drawn the petition):
Held: Though, the alleged contemnors have tendered their apology however, the apology is tendered only to this Court – Since the scandalous allegations were made against the High Court Judge therefore, alleged contemnors to tender unconditional apology to the concerned Judge – Liberty sought therefor, granted – Registrar General of the High Court to reopen the matter only for the limited purpose of tendering an unconditional apology by the alleged contemnors before the concerned Judge – After the question of acceptance of the apology is decided, Supreme Court to consider the issue with regard to acceptance of apology tendered to this Court. [Paras 15-19]
Constitution of India – Judges of the High Court vis-à-vis Judges of the Supreme Court:
Held: Judges of the High Court are not inferior to the Judges of the Supreme Court – Though, as an appellate Court to the High Court, Supreme Court can affirm, reverse, modify or set aside the judgment of the High Court, it has no administrative control, either over the administration of the High Court or the Judges of the High Court – The Judges of the High Court are also Constitutional functionaries and they enjoy the same immunity as is enjoyed by a Judge of the Supreme Court – Practice amongst lawyers to criticize the Judges of the High Courts or Trial Courts without any reason and the trend seeking the transfer of matters involving a political figure in a particular State to another State, deprecated – Merely on the basis that a petition involves a political figure in a State cannot constitute a ground to transfer the proceedings from the High Court of that State to the High Court of another State – When scandalous allegations are made against the Judges of the High Court, it becomes the duty of this Court to protect the Judges of the High Court – Judges of the High Court are appointed under the Constitution of India and upon assuming the office, they take an oath to act without any fear or favour, affection or ill-will and to uphold the Constitution and the laws – To imply that because a political figure is involved in a case, and therefore, a holder of such a high constitutional office would not act independently, in our view, scandalizes the very institution of administration of justice – Judicial deprecation. [Paras 11-14]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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