Supreme Court Issues Contempt Notice to Lawyer, AOR Over Remarks Against Telangana HC Judge
The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday pulled up a seasoned lawyer for filing a petition with scandalous remarks against a sitting High Court judge.
CJI BR Gavai-led bench issued show cause notices to the petitioner Peddi Raju and his lawyers, asking them why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for their allegations against Telangana High Court judge, Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya.
As the counsel sought to withdraw the petition, court dismissed his request. "This has happened for the first time..never happened in my life..", the counsel further submitted before the bench.
Court then asked the litigant to file an apology and said that it would consider whether the apology was genuine or not.
Before the Supreme Court, a transfer petition was filed to transfer a case against the Telangana Chief Minister under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The High Court judge had quashed a case registered against Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for offences under sections 3(1)(f)(g)(r) and (s) and 3(2)(va) of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. It was held that no congnizable offence or offence of any kind was disclosed against Reddy in the Charge Sheet for the Court to permit the investigation to go on in the Sessions Case.
The dispute in the case was with regard to the possession of land, which the High Court held was the subject matter of a civil dispute between parties.
"Any act of dispossession of a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste would per se not amount to an offence under the SC/ST (PoA) Act unless the person/victim is abused, intimidated or harassed solely on the ground that he/she belongs to a Scheduled Case or Scheduled Tribe", the High Court held.
The High Court judge was also informed by the complainant that the instant transfer petition before the Supreme Court sought transfer of the Criminal Petition to any other Court. In this regard the High Court judge had noted in the judgement, "It may also be noted that although the matter was heard on several occasions by this Bench after its assignment from 25.04.2025 onwards, no submission was made on behalf of the respondent No.2 indicating any intention to seek a transfer the matter or that any application was being filed for that purpose before the Supreme Court...".
Case Title: N. Peddi Raju Vs Anumula Revanth Reddy
Hearing Date: July 29, 2025
Bench: CJI Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran