The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani, has instructed the court’s Registry to list suo motu the contempt of court proceedings against BJP national secretary H. Raja before a Division Bench of Justices C.T. Selvam and M. Nirmal Kumar, who initiated them on September 17.
The instruction was issued after an advocate objected to the suo motu action taken by the Division Bench, contending that no judge other than the Chief Justice could initiate such an action. When his representation was placed before the Chief Justice, she instructed the Registry to list the contempt petition before the same Bench.
According to court sources, the Chief Justice had made the remark in a file placed before her along with the written representation of the lawyer. Since she was the ‘master of the roster’, the contempt of court petition would now be listed before the Bench led by Mr. Justice Selvam on October 22, when Mr. Raja would have to appear in-person.
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Last week, the Bench had taken serious note of a video clip of Mr. Raja doing the rounds in the social media. In the video, he was seen making “scandalous” remarks against the judiciary when the police cited High Court orders to deny him permission for the erection of a stage in a public place to celebrate Vinayagar Chathurthi in Pudukottai district.
Aghast at the language used by the BJP leader against the High Court, the Bench said: “We judges are but cogwheels in the administration of justice till we have done our time and wane away. It is the majesty of this institution, the honourable superior court and courts below which is paramount, and it is this that we seek to uphold.”
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Subsequently, a lawyer representing Mr. Raja took strong exception to the suo motu contempt proceedings as well as the statutory notice issued to him requiring his presence in the court on October 22 and made a representation to the Chief Justice claiming that the Division Bench had no authority under law to initiate such proceedings.
Law officer’s powers
In the meantime, Justice R. Mahadevan of the High Court on Friday sought to know Advocate General Vijay Narayan’s stand on a writ petition that claimed that the law officer could either grant or reject consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Mr. Raja, but could not issue a show cause notice to him.
M. Kannadasan, secretary of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, had filed the writ petition. He had initially filed a contempt of court petition against the BJP leader in the High Court Registry and it was referred to the A-G for his consent.
The consent had been made mandatory to avoid frivolous petitions.