Three lawyers have moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday with a contempt petition against the DMK president M. Karunanidhi and his son M.K. Stalin for making remarks denigrating judges of the apex court to garner votes in the elections.
The petitioners, P.V. Selvakumar, C. Thirumaran and S. Diwakar said, “the contempt petition arises out of the repeated speeches and statements made by the Respondents during the election scandalising the majesty of this Court and the judges adorning the Supreme Court, with a view to garner votes in the ensuing elections to Parliament.”
They said Mr. Karunanidhi, Mr. Stalin and DMK General Secretary, K. Anbazhagan were making speeches with regard to the stay granted by the Supreme Court staying the trial in the Bangalore Special Court against the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and others. The three respondents had made personal attacks against the Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam and the bench headed by Justices B.S. Chauhan (which granted the stay) and attributed motives to the judges. Mr. Karunanidhi had also made contemptuous remarks against the CJI for his statement that the judgment in the ‘Rajiv Gandhi accused case’ would be delivered before his retirement on April 25.
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The petitioners said, “Mr. Karunanidhi had referred the Supreme Court as a polluted river Ganga. By this reference he had denigrated the majesty of this Court, which is perse contemptuous in content, as per section 2 (C) of The Contempt of Court Act 1971”, they said and pleaded for initiating proceedings for contempt of court.