Petition against Contempt Law | Explanation sought from Apex Court Registry on listing

An explanation has been sought from the Apex Court Registry officials involved in the listing of a writ petition filed jointly by veteran journalists N. Ram & Arun Shourie along with Lawyer Prashant Bhushan challenging a law that makes “scandalising of court” a ground for contempt. 

A short note from an official source in the Top Court said a ‘mistake’ has been made by the Registry in the listing of the case.

The writ petition was listed for hearing before a Bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud & Justice K.M. Joseph on Aug 10. The Court website now shows the plea has been dropped from the list of cases before that Bench on that day. 

The note explained that the petition, as per established procedure, should have been listed before the Bench which was already seized of a “similar matter”. 

A 3-Judge Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra had recently initiated & heard a suo motu contempt case against Mr. Bhushan for “scandalising the court” with his tweet featuring a photograph of CJI SA Bobde on a heavy bike & another about the role of the Supreme Court in the past 6 years. The Justice Mishra Bench has already reserved the case for orders.

The present writ petition is accompanied by an application for stay of all contempt proceedings initiated on the ground of “scandalising the court”, which includes the suo motu proceedings before the Justice Mishra Bench. 

The writ petition has challenged the legality of Section 2(c)(i) of the Contempt of Court Act, which deals with contempt on the ground of scandalising the Court & the “chilling effect” it has on free speech & right to dissent.

Section 2(c) (i) holds it is criminal contempt if a person publishes, by words spoken or written or by any other act, anything “which scandalises or tends to scandalise or lowers or tends to lower the authority of any court”.

The writ petition said that “ ‘Scandalising the court’ is rooted in colonial assumption & objects, which has no place in legal orders committed to democratic constitutionality & maintenance of an open robust public sphere".

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