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24-05-2022
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI/ BENGALURU: Making allegations against judges has become a fashion in India these days, the Supreme Court said today while expressing concern over increasing cases of targeting of judges. This is most prevalent in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, it said while refusing to interfere with an order of the Madras High Court finding an advocate guilty of contempt and sentencing him to 15-day imprisonment. “The stronger the judge, the worse the allegations,” it said.
Justice DY Chadrachud said judges are being attacked all over the country and district judges don’t have any security, at times even a lathi wielding policeman is not available.
While upholding the prison sentence, the court said lawyers are not above the law. “They will also have to face consequences if they try to obstruct the justice process,” it said.
“Such lawyers are a blot on the judicial process and should be dealt with strictly,” it said while issuing a non-bailable warrant against the accused lawyer. “This man is completely incorrigible. He belongs to a class of lawyers who are absolutely incorrigible. They are a blot on the legal profession,” it said in a strongly worded remark.
“The judge issued a non-bailable warrant against him. He was found at a tea shop near the High Court, 100 advocates lay upon him and prevented the Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) from being served. There’s CCTV footage…and worse, when the matter came back, he made allegations against Justice PT Asha,” Justice Chandrachud said.
The court said two weeks of imprisonment is a very lenient punishment and that there’ll be some remorse when he goes to jail for two weeks and when he’s barred from practice.
Justice Chandrachud observed that it has become common practice in some High Courts to openly threaten judges. “Dare issue an NBW against me, they say,” he said.
“You cannot level wanton allegations. Imagine a 100 lawyers gathering. Lawyers are also subject to the process of law…Now, it is becoming a new fashion of making allegations against judges,” Justice Chandrachud remarked, adding that such cases are happening in Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, and Chennai on a large scale.
The lawyer had said that he had offered an unconditional apology but the Supreme Court refused to interfere.
Earlier, a Sessions Court in Bengaluru has rejected the bail plea of Rahmatullah from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli, who is in judicial custody for having allegedly threatened the life of Karnataka High Court judges who pronounced the verdict on wearing hijab in classrooms recently.
A City Civil and Sessions Court rejected Rahmatullah’s plea on Saturday. Mohammed Usmani, a member of Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), is another person arrested on similar charges. Both are in judicial custody.
A bench comprising Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna Dixit and Justice Khazi M Jaibunnisa upheld the ban on hijab in Karnataka’s educational institutions recently.
Videos of Rahmatullah and Usmani, both from Tamil Nadu, went viral where they are allegedly heard making the threat.
Judge V Prakash rejected the bail plea after public prosecutor BS Patil convinced the court that the charges against the accused were serious in nature and his custody was necessary.
