A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday initiated a suo motu contempt of court proceeding against suspended IPS officer and former Vigilance Director Jacob Thomas for making allegations against two High Court judges in a letter given to the Chief Secretary for forwarding it to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).
The Bench comprising Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu initiated the proceedings on a petition filed by High Court lawyer B.H. Mansoor after it found that the petition made allegations which constituted criminal contempt as defined by the Contempt of Courts Act.
Observing that it was necessary to take further action on the petition, the court issued notice to Mr. Thomas and directed him to appear in person before the court on April 2.
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The petition of the lawyer alleged that Mr. Thomas was the contemner. An IPS officer of the 1985 batch in Kerala cadre, he was now under suspension and facing disciplinary proceedings.
Media reports
On March 10, news items were published in all national dailies saying that Mr. Thomas had sent a complaint to the CVC through the Chief Secretary demanding a detailed probe into the circumstances in which Justice P. Ubaid and Justice Abraham Mathew, two sitting High court judges, had made adverse observations about him.
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According to the petition, portions of the complaint were leaked and made public by him intentionally and dishonestly to scandalise and lower the authority of the court. He had made the allegations in the complaint with the knowledge that they were false. It also interfered with the administration of justice.
The petition further alleged that being a senior public servant, he was well aware that the CVC had no authority to probe any of the allegations contained in the complaint. Despite all these,he had chosen to send the complaint containing derogatory and false statements to the CVC. It was a clever attempt on the part of Mr. Thomas to get it published and thereby scandalising and lowering the authority of the court besides interfering with the administration of justice.
Mr. Thomas had said in his complaint that several judgments of the single judges had a demoralizing effect on the officers diligently investigating complex corruption cases involving highly influential persons in the State.