Read Time: 05 minutes

Synopsis

Attorney General KK Venugopal has refused to give consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Sr Adv and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal for making comments allegedly scandalizing the Indian Judiciary and disgracing its dignity.

AG Venugopal stated that Sibal's criticism of the court and the judgments was so that the Court may take note of that in the larger interests of the justice delivery system.

AG Venugopal has responded to the letters written by Advocates Vineet Jindal and Shashank Shekhar Jha seeking consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Sibal alleging that Sibal passed derogatory and scandalous statements in the context of the Supreme Court of India.

However, AG Venugopal has stated, "Having gone through the entirety of Mr. Sibal's speech, I find that his criticism of the Court and the judgments was so that the Court may take note of the statements in the larger interests of the justice delivery system."

AG Venugopal in his response to Jindal's letter stated that "statements which pertain to loss of faith in the Supreme Court are not contemptuous on the face of it, as import of those statements is the fact that the orders of the Supreme Court are not implemented on the ground."

He declined the consent stating that "it does not appear to me that the statements were intended to scandalize the Court or affect the confidence of the public in the institution."

It may be noted that Jindal's letter had stated that Sibal in his speech said, "If we don't speak it, who will? The reality is such that any sensitive matter which we know has a problem is placed before certain judges and we know the outcome."

Jindal's letter had referred to the speech delivered by Sibal at an event, “People's Tribunal”, organized to discuss the "Judicial Rollback of Civil Liberties" by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the National Alliance of People's movements (NAPM).

"Sibal also questioned the independence of the judiciary saying, 'Jis court mein judge bithaye jaate hain (the court where judges are instituted) through a process of compromise, a court where there is no system to determine which case will be presided over by which bench, where the Chief Justice of India decides which matter will be dealt with by which bench and then the court can never be independent," the letter had added.