Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court dismissed Monday a prayer for taking suo motu cognisance of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee’s comments on the judiciary. The high court observed that it does not find the utterances by Abhishek Banerjee ‘scandalise the authority of the court in any manner’.
Two lawyers moved the vacation bench presided by Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. They sought suo motu cognisance of Banerjee’s comments which they claimed lowered the prestige of the judiciary and prayed for issuance of contempt rule against him.
Banerjee had Saturday spoken out against what he termed as ‘1 per cent of the judiciary’ for ordering a ‘CBI enquiry’ into every case in state, at a public meeting at Haldia.
Dismissing the petition, the court said that upon going through the allegations made in the affidavits in support of the prayer, it does not find ‘sufficient reason to adopt the extreme measure of issuing a suo motu rule of contempt’.
The bench, also comprising Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, said that in the present case, undoubtedly the comments uttered by the person in question may not be palatable to the general public and/or the members of the Judiciary.
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The high court bench however said that this did not tantamount to a ‘contumacious act’ (act of willful disobedience to authority), justifying issuance of a suo motu rule of contempt
“We do not find the comments made by the person in question, in any manner, scandalise or tend to scandalise, or lower or tend to lower, the authority of any court,” the bench said in its order.
The bench said that if stray comments by any citizen of India, prompt the courts to issue suo motu rules of contempt, it would be impossible for the judiciary to discharge its adjudicatory functions in more important matters.
The division bench said that it is, however, expected that people in public life should restrain themselves from making comments that may lower the prestige of the judiciary.