A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court dismissed two writ petitions seeking to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against CPI(M) leader M.V. Jayarajan for his remarks against judges in the wake of the court's prohibition of meetings on public roads.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice P.N. Ravindran dismissed the petition while upholding the objection raised by the Registry to entertaining the writ petitions as they were moved without obtaining the consent of the Advocate-General.
The Registry had opined that criminal contempt of court proceedings could be initiated only after obtaining the consent of the Advocate-General or suo motu by the court itself.
However, suo motu action for initiation of contempt proceedings could be taken only after the matter was considered by a Full Court. In the instance case, the consent of the Advocate-General had not been obtained, the Registry had said.
As for the plea for a directive to register criminal cases against Mr. Jayarajan, the court said the petitioners could not specify the provision of law by which he could be proceeded against.
The Bench, therefore, said that no useful purpose would be served by directing the Registry to number and entertain the petitions.
The petitions were filed by C.A. Edison, chairman, All Kerala Niyama Sahaya Vedi, Thrissur, and Basil Attipetty, High Court lawyer.
Meanwhile, the court began hearing arguments on the maintainability of another petition filed by lawyer P. Rehim seeking contempt action against Mr. Jayarajan.
