VK Singh says sorry, SC drops contempt charges

The Supreme Court today accepted the apology tendered by former army chief Gen. VK Singh and dropped the contempt proceedings which it had initiated, taking suo motu cognizance of his interview to a news channel casting aspersion on the court in his date of birth matter.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted former Army Chief VK Singh’s unconditional apology withdrawing his comments questioning a judicial verdict on his age row controversy and dropped the contempt proceedings against him.

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“We accept the unqualified apology tendered by him and the contempt proceedings are accordingly dropped,” said a bench of Justice RM Lodha and Justice HL Gokhale.

It later observed Singh had tendered the apology at the earliest opportunity without contesting its merits.

“Repentance is a tool which condones all sort of misdemeanour and if the apology is coming from the heart and that too from a senior advocate like Ram Jethmalani, it (contempt proceedings) should not continue even for a second,” the bench said.

Appearing for Singh, Jethmalani told the court that the former Army Chief had withdrawn the entire statement made by him concerning the judiciary and its February 10, 2012 decision on his age row controversy.

SC had on October 1 issued notice to Singh, saying his interview was “scandalising” and undermining the authority of the court.