The Supreme Court on Friday ended contempt proceedings against its former judge, Markandey Katju, after he tendered an unconditional apology to the court for certain remarks made on his blog about judges in relation to the sensational Soumya rape case in Kerala.
“In view of the apology tendered, which has been verified, we close the instant contempt proceedings,” a Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and U.U. Lalit observed in their short order closing proceedings against Mr. Katju.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for Mr. Katju, read from the reply tendering the apology.
The retired judge had been earlier granted exemption from personal appearance.
On November 11 last year, the apex court had issued contempt notice to Mr. Katju after taking note of certain remarks allegedly made by him about judges in his personal blog.
‘Fundamental flaws’
Mr. Katju had personally appeared in court to debate what he had called certain “fundamental flaws” the Supreme Court had made in its judgment in the Soumya case in which the death penalty of the sole convict was commuted to life imprisonment. The issue of contempt was raised after the Bench had dismissed the review petitions filed by the Kerala government and mother of Soumya challenging the acquittal of the convict of the murder charge.
