Delhi HC Sentences Man To 6 Months Imprisonment For His Contemptuous Plea Demanding Death Penalty To A Sitting Judge

The Delhi High Court convicted a man for contempt for seeking death penalty to one of its sitting judge.

The Division Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Shalinder Kaur sentenced one Naresh Sharma to six months of simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 2000.

"As a responsible citizen of the Country, the Contemnor is expected to set-forth his grievances in a civilized manner, maintaining the dignity of the Court and judicial process of law. Even if, it is taken that Contemnor due to outrage preferred the writ petitions, but despite issuance of Show Cause Notice, he without pleading guilty, filed a highly disrespectful reply thereto, which explicitly show that he has no guilt to his actions. Rather, the Contemnor has stated that he has no remorse to whatever he did and he stands by the same. The Contemnor has used utter derogatory language for the learned Single Bench to the extent of saying that the learned Single Judge is a ‘thief‟ and he has full proof of the same.", the bench observed

Subsequently, it was ordered that, "we hereby hold the Contemnor guilty of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and consequently, we sentence him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of 6 months with fine of Rs.2,000/- and in default of payment of fine, he shall undergo simple imprisonment of seven days. The Contemnor is directed to be taken into custody by HC Vinod (Naib Court), who shall handover his custody to the Tihar Jail, Delhi today itself."

Additional Standing Counsel (Criminal) Sanjeev Bhandari and Counsel Kunal Mittal, Counsel Arjit Singh and Counsel Rishika appeared for the GNCTD, while CGSC Rakesh Kumar and Counsel Sunil appeared for the Union.

In this case, the contemner had filed the petition alleging corruption within the Indian Government and demanding that investigation be made. His petition had been dismissed.

In the appeal, the contemner sought criminal action against the Judge by stating that Article 14 of the Constitution of India does not allow mixing unrelated thing, and hence, the Single Bench should be criminally charged with. The Contemnor also raised derogatory allegations against the Supreme Court and even emphasised the punishment of death penalty.

The contemnor was present in Court and submitted that he stood by the allegations he had made.

In light of the same, the Court was of the opinion that he had no repentance for his conduct and actions. Subsequently, he was held guilty of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and sentenced.

The Court allowed his request of going to the hotel he was staying at and allowed him to check out.

Cause Title: Court On Its Own Motion vs Naresh Sharma

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