HC agrees to consider contempt plea against Thanga Tamilselvan

Justice N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court on Thursday agreed to take up with Chief Justice Indira Banerjee an advocate’s request to initiate suo motu contempt of court proceedings against disqualified MLA Thanga Tamilselvan. The request was made after accusing the latter of having imputed motives to a judgment delivered recently on a batch of cases filed by him and 17 others challenging their disqualification.

During the course of mentioning by advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam, the judge expressed anguish over even lawyers making derogatory remarks against the judges for performance of their judicial duties within the four corners of law. He said the judiciary would be treading towards a suicidal path if such vicious vilification campaigns against it, on the mainstream as well as social media, was not curtailed with an iron hand.

Media interviews

Initially, Mr. Suryaprakasam brought it to the notice of the judge that he had written a letter to the Chief Justice on Wednesday complaining about the way in which Mr. Tamilselvan had been going about giving interviews to television channels. “He has been pouring venom on the judiciary, particularly on the Chief Justice, by imputing personal motives and alleging corruption in the discharge of her judicial duty,” the lawyer said.

Producing video evidence to prove the disqualified MLAs act, the advocate said: “He has openly accused that the High Court of Madras is being totally controlled by the Central and State governments and this particular judgment was leaked well in advance to the State government and that the High court is dancing to the tunes of the StategGovernment. He has also threatened to defame the judiciary by withdrawing his writ petition.”