MP HC Convicts A Professor In Contempt Case [Read Order]

A division bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has sentenced a professor to three months simple imprisonment for failing to furnish proof to support his allegations of corruption against certain judges of high court in a contempt case.

The court suspended the conviction for three weeks to enable the contemnor Lavit Rawtani a Professor of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) Bhopal to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Though there was no request from the contemnor professor to suspend the sentence, but the court in interest of justice granted opportunity to file the appeal considering the “age and status of contemnor”.

A division bench of Justice R.S.Jha and Justice A.K.Joshi said “we may take note of the fact that in the instant case, there is no iota of any remorse or regret in the stand of the contemner before this Court nor has he tendered any kind of apology or explanation for his conduct”.

The court observed “the statement of the contemner appears to have been made as a calculated attempt to obstruct and to interfere with the course of justice and the due administration of law, more so as this Court and the Judges perform their duties herein enjoying the highest confidence and respect of the people which cannot be allowed to be tarnished, diminished or wiped out by such scurrilous abusive unsubstantiated statements of the contemnor”.

The court ordered the copy of the order be sent to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhopal, the Superintendents of Police Bhopal and Jabalpur and the Director of MANIT Bhopal.

The court order shall come into force from 26.4.2017 if the contemnor do not file appeal within three weeks or obtain stay on punishment from the Supreme Court.

In this condition the contemnor has to surrender before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhopal on his own on that date failing which the concerned authorities were directed by the court to execute the order and sent him to the jail.

The court said the contemnor shall be lodged in the Central Jail Bhopal.

The court directed its registry to prepare a jail warrant and take all other necessary steps to ensure proper implementation of this order.

Read the Order here.