The Supreme Court has declined to entertain an appeal by the Registrar-General of the Madras High Court and a few police officers against an order that held the police guilty of contempt for arresting a judicial magistrate on the charge of raping a Sub-Inspector.
Treating the arrest of Coonoor Judicial Magistrate S. Thangaraj by the Palladam police as an affront to the judiciary, the High Court initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Superintendent of Police R. Ponni and four other police officers. It freed Mr. Thangaraj on bail and ruled that Ms. Ponni and DSPs C. Pitchai and Suresh Kumar had committed contempt of court. The appeal is directed against this order.
When the special leave petitions came up before a Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur, S. Nagappan and A.K. Goel, senior counsel Ashok Desai, who appeared for the petitioners, said the High Court had committed a mistake by initiating the contempt proceedings. When the Bench pointed out that there was nothing wrong in the order, Mr. Desai wanted the petitions to be withdrawn. Accordingly, they were dismissed as withdrawn.
The petitioners said the arrest was made for a grave offence by a judicial officer, which would lower the dignity of the judiciary. Under normal circumstances, they said, such a case would have been handled by an Inspector of Police, but those involved in the arrest were of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. This showed the police were mindful of the high office held by the person accused of the offence.
The High Court had failed to appreciate the fact that the contempt proceedings were not maintainable because the petitioners were charged with having violated the Supreme Court’s guidelines; hence contempt proceedings could have been opened only by the Supreme Court.
