The Madras High Court on Friday, December 15, 2023, sentenced retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer G. Sampath Kumar to 15 days of simple imprisonment after finding him guilty in a criminal contempt of court plea filed against him by ace cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Justices S.S. Sundar and Sunder Mohan agreed with the cricketer that the former IPS officer had made contumacious remarks against the Supreme Court as well as the High Court while defending a defamation suit for ₹100 crore filed by the cricketer.
Senior Counsel P.R. Raman, representing Mr. Dhoni, brought it to the notice of the court that his client had filed the defamation suit against the contemnor and a few media houses in 2014 for having named him in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scam.
While filing a written statement in that suit, the retired officer had said: Unfortunately, the Supreme Court chose to keep the select portion of the report of the Justice Mudgal Committee under sealed cover, especially the portion that needed to be probed by a SIT for reasons best known to the Supreme Court.”
He had also said: “The Supreme Court deviated from its focus on ‘Rule of law’ and shelved the deposition in sealed cover for reasons.” Further, he had made an adverse comment against the Madras High Court too for having granted an interim injunction against him in the suit.
“It is submitted that the gag order by means of injunction is a clear misuse of Judicial process and a bad precedent,” he had said besides commenting upon the appearance of Senior Counsel P.S. Raman and P.R. Raman for various clients including the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
After reading his remarks in the written statement, the Bench led by Justice Sundar was convinced that the statements were contumacious and and appeared to have been made with an intention to scandalize and lower the authority of the Supreme Court as well as the High Court.
“What is more perturbing or suprising is the conduct of respondent after the filing of contempt. The respondent has filed a reply affidavit in this contempt petition on January 4, 2023. In the above reply affidavit, the respondent has not tendered any apology for the serious allegations he has made against this court,” the Bench said.
Nevertheless, showing leniency towards him, the judges restricted the punishment to 15 days of simple imprisonment and also suspended the sentence for a period of 30 days in order to enable him to prefer an appeal before the Supreme Court.
The suspension was ordered by the court suo motu by exercising its powers under Section 19(3) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 even though the contemnor had not made any such request.
Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram had granted permission to Mr. Dhoni on July 18, 2022 for initiating the criminal contempt proceedings against the retired IPS officer. The A-G too was satisfied that the remarks in the written statement amounted to scandalising court proceedings.
