Kerala Congress President Receives Legal Notice From SCBA Joint Secretary Over "Resign Now" Post Against CJI Surya Kant

Supreme Court Bar Association Joint Secretary Meenesh Dubey has sent a legal notice to Sunny Joseph President, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) to explain the absence of a public apology and express reprimand concerning the objectionable tweet directed at the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

On 12 October 2026, from the official and verified X account of Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) a post was made which stated: "Dear Surya Kant, If law and order is not your domain, resign now. We will find your replacement who can handle it."

The notice notes the President of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee stating that the post had been published without the knowledge, consent or consultation of the state leadership and that the person responsible had been removed from the position.

"If the tweet was indeed unauthorised and contrary to the position of the party leadership, it was incumbent upon the responsible leadership to address the matter with appropriate seriousness and transparency. Merely distancing the party from the statement and removing the person managing the account cannot, without further explanation, be treated as a complete answer to the concerns raised by the incident," the notice states.

Dubey has stated that freedom of political expression is an essential democratic right, however, that freedom does not absolve political parties and their office-bearers of the responsibility to ensure that official communications are made with due care and respect for constitutional institutions. Any alleged legal liability must, of course, be determined in accordance with the facts and applicable law, he adds.

The KPCC President has been called upon to furnish a comprehensive written response to the notice within seven days of its receipt, clarifying his position regarding a public apology, an express reprimand and further appropriate action.

In a related development, four advocates practising before the Supreme Court have moved the Supreme Court seeking a party-neutral framework to keep political processions, protests and sloganeering away from constitutional courts, and have asked it to consider initiating suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against several opposition leaders over the events of Monday, October 12, when an opposition march headed towards the Court and posts demanding the resignation of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant appeared on X.

The PIL arrays Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, Mahua Moitra, the Indian National Congress and the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee as respondents, alongside the Union of India, the Delhi Police Commissioner and the Supreme Court through its Secretary General as a proforma respondent.

According to the petition, the Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha wrote to the Chief Justice on October 10 seeking an appointment on October 12 to submit a memorandum. Its publicly announced demands, the petition says, included a halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whose decisions are under challenge before the Court.

The Chief Justice had declined the meeting by a letter dated October 11. The petition quotes the letter as recording that the issues "are already sub judice before the Supreme Court of India" and that "convening a meeting to discuss pending cases would wholly contravene the principle of Separation of Powers, an intrinsic facet of the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution of India, and would be incompatible with the established ethics and judicial propriety".

The petition places on record two posts made on X on October 12, after the Chief Justice was reported to have told reporters that the protests in Delhi were "law and order ka mudda" and "mera vishay nahin hai".

At 4:48 PM, the petition says, the official handle of the Kerala unit of the Congress posted, "Dear Surya Kant, If law and order is not your domain, resign now. We will find your replacement who can handle it." At 6:35 PM, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra posted, in the petition's words "in apparent reference to Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India": "Surya clearly Can't. So we will."

The petitioners submitted that the first post "addressed the Chief Justice of India by name, without the courtesy of his title", "struck at the dignity of the office of the Chief Justice of India and implied that the highest judicial office in the land is a matter of political choice." They added: "It is indeed shocking that the post of @INCKerala could issue from the official handle of a unit of a national party at all."