Advocate Seeks Sanction From Kerala AG To Prosecute SFI National President For Criminal Contempt Of Court
|A petition has been filed before the Advocate General of Kerala against V.P.Sanu, the National President of the Students Federation of India (SFI), seeking sanction to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against him for his alleged remarks against Justice Deven Ramachandran of the Kerala High Court.
The petition has been filed by Advocate Rakesk K Rajan who practices in Kollam District Court.
The petition alleges that VP Sanu made scandalous and contemptuous remarks against Justice Devan Ramachandran, which were widely published in the media. The petition says that there is a rising trend in the state to personally attack judges for getting media attention.
As per the petition, Sanu said that Justice Ramachandran, "like the former judges of the Supreme Court", is "committed to the central government and this would be clear if his judgments were examined".
The petitioner has also written to the Registrar General of the High Court requesting to place the instance of alleged contempt before the Chief Justice of the High Court for initiating contempt of court proceedings against the SFI leader.
The petition quotes the alleged contemptuous statements made by V.P. Sanu to the media thus- “Sanu said that Devan Ramachandran, like the former judges of the Supreme Court, was committed to the central government and this would be clear if his judgments were examined. Sanu said that he can say only after retirement whether this is for the sake of position. The cataract of anti-leftism and anti-Kerala government can be seen in all the judgments of Justice Devan Ramachandran. He has been a single bench in education related cases for a long time and his observations in such judgments is not sustainable to common sense. That is why his judgments are getting revised before the Division Bench. What the Governor and Justice Devan Ramachandran have in common is anti-leftism and anti-government in Kerala. It often turns into antagonism to the people of Kerala.”
The lawyer says in his petition that there is a limit to the freedom of speech and expression and that the same is not a license to defame other citizens. "Here, the statements made by the opposite party crosses all limits of fair criticism of judgment or proceedings of the court and it amounts to personal abuse against a sitting Judge performing his function/discharging his duties as a Judge of the Hon’ble High Court of Kerala", the petition says.
Incidentally, another petition filed by a lawyer in May last year seeking sanction for initiation of contempt proceedings against a PFI leader for his alleged contemptuous remarks is still pending before the Advocate General of Kerala.