The Madras High Court on Friday issued statutory notice to Indian Police Service (IPS) officer G. Sampath Kumar on a criminal contempt of court petition filed against him by cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni for having reportedly made contumacious remarks against the Supreme Court and the High Court.
Justices P.N. Prakash and RMT Teekaa Raman directed the officer to appear before the court on December 9 to tender his explanation. He was accused of having made the remarks in his written reply to a ₹100 crore defamation suit filed by the cricketer in 2014 for having named him in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scam.
Representing Mr. Dhoni, senior counsel P.R. Raman told the court that the written statement in the suit was filed only by the end of 2021, wherein the IPS officer had accused the Supreme Court of “having deviated its focus from the rule of law” while dealing with a report submitted in a sealed cover with respect to the betting issue.
In the statement, the officer had further accused the cricketer of having chosen to file the suit in the Madras High Court with the sole aim of obtaining a gag order and said that the choice of the senior counsel to represent him before the High Court spoke “volumes about the conspiracy behind the plaint.”
Such “audacious” statements against the judiciary in the written statement were ex-facie contumacious and, therefore, the contemnor must be imposed with the maximum punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 for having scandalised and lowered the authority of the court, Mr. Raman said.
He also brought it to the notice of the court that Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram was fully convinced with the contumacious nature of the statements and granted his consent, as required under the 1971 Act, for moving the present criminal contempt of court petition. After the grant of consent on July 7, the IPS officer had urged the A-G to reconsider his decision. However, the latter rejected such plea for reconsideration by passing a detailed order, the court was told.
