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A lawyer has written a letter addressed to Attorney General KK Venugopal seeking his consent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Mr. Chandrashekhar Azad “Ravan”, President, Bheem Army, Leader of Azad Samaj Party for allegedly scandalizing the Indian judiciary and disgracing its dignity.

The letter written by Adv. Vineet Jindal says that, in an interview aired on the ABP News channel on its programme called ‘ABP Shikhar Sammelan’ on August 27, 2021, Azad has passed derogatory and scandalous statements about the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and its Hon’ble Judges.

The letter states that in his interviewed video at 8.27 minutes, Azad remarked upon the collegium system ,“ye savidhaan me koe pravadhan nai hai, is tarike ka, ye to yahan ke logo ne bana diya jo judge baithe hue hai, ki collegium, ki collegium kaise tay kar dega, judge ka beta judge, judge ka bhatija judge, judge ka daamad judge, judge ka bhai judge, ye kya baat hui, dalito mein, pitchdo mein, muslimo mein pratibha nai hai…” 

Jindal has submitted that through the above statement Azad has scandalized the process of selection of the judges on the basis of collegium. As per his statement the selection is done solely on the basis of personal relations or family relations of the selected judges with the sitting judges. Jindal states that through these statements, Azad has alleged that the selection process is totally biased and that it takes place in the interest of sitting judges and their family members.

It has further been stated that in his interviewed video Azad has also said that “kissi ne Rs. 50 crore ka ghotala kiya , aur vo apni setting se Rs. 2000 crore kissi sammanit vyakti se transfer karwa de to Rs. 48 crore rupay nagad bach gaye, order aa jata hai uske favour mein, janta dekh rahi hai , mujhe ye kehne mein koi dikkaat nai hai ki bada ghotala vahan se ho raha hai, sabki janch honi chahiye, Supreme Court ke jitney judges hai unki janch honi chahiye unki sampatti ki, itni sampaati kahan se aayi, aur uska kya source hai, tankha se alag konsa business kar rahe hai ki itni sampatti aa gayi hai …..”

Jindal says that the statements by Azad have scandalized the judgments passed by the Supreme Court judges by accusing them of being corrupt.

“If this kind of precedent were allowed, political leaders would start making reckless allegations against the judges of the Highest Court of our country and this trend would soon lead to the failure of an independent judiciary system… These kind of statements would affect the masses by growing a sense of mistrust and concern among the public about the fall in the standards of the judicial system,” says Jindal.

Jindal has sought consent of the Attorney General under Section 15 (1) (b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, read with Rule 3 of The Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975, to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Chandar Shekhar Azad “Ravan”.

Edited by Shreya Agarwal