The Rajasthan high court on Saturday issued a notice to chief minister Ashok Gehlot, asking why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him over his recent remarks on the judiciary. The court asked Gehlot to submit a reply within three weeks.
The notice comes amid uproar over Gehlot’s remarks at an event in Jaipur on August 30. “Corruption is rampant in the judiciary today. I have heard that some lawyers themselves take the judgement in writing and the same judgement is pronounced,” he said.
As the remarks triggered sharp reactions from the legal fraternity, a local lawyer, Shivcharan Gupta, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the high court on Thursday seeking contempt proceedings against the chief minister. Gehlot, however, later issued a clarification. “What I said yesterday about the corruption of the Judiciary is not my personal opinion. I have always respected and believed in the judiciary...,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) on August 31.
In the PIL, the petitioner said: “This (Gehlot’s) statement clearly amounts to a wilful scandalisation of the judiciary, and the petitioner, an advocate practising for the last 47 years, cannot tolerate it.”
Hearing the matter on Saturday, a division bench of justices Manindra Mohan Srivastava and Ashutosh Kumar noted: “The contents of the statement, if made by the respondent, prima facie make out a case that it tends to scandalise the courts because it does not refer to any particular case or category of cases, but general in nature against the judiciary as a whole.”
{{/usCountry}}Hearing the matter on Saturday, a division bench of justices Manindra Mohan Srivastava and Ashutosh Kumar noted: “The contents of the statement, if made by the respondent, prima facie make out a case that it tends to scandalise the courts because it does not refer to any particular case or category of cases, but general in nature against the judiciary as a whole.”
{{/usCountry}}“We are inclined to seek a response from the respondent with regard to the statement which is attributed to him in this petition on the basis of the newspaper report. Issue notice to the respondents by ordinary as well as registered post within three days, returnable by three weeks,” the bench ordered.
The court has fixed the next hearing on October 3.
Reacting to the order, Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said: “The chief minister never meant to taint or question judiciary, which has cleared through his tweet (on Thursday). The Congress leaders have always respected the judiciary.”