Attorney General Refuses Consent To Initiate Contempt Proceedings Against Chandra Shekhar Azad

The Attorney General for India KK Venugopal yesterday declined to grant consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against the National President of Azad Samaj Party, Chandra Shekhar Azad for his comments levelling allegations against the judges of the Supreme Court.

The AG was considering a letter forwarded by Delhi based lawyer Vineet Jindal requesting him to grant consent under Section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 to initiate contempt proceedings against Azad.

Attorney General KK Venugopal refuses consent to initiate Contempt proceedings against Chandra Shekhar Azad (@BhimArmyChief) for levelling allegations against Supreme Court judges.

"They (allegations) appear to have been made with the intent to be provocative," reads the letter. pic.twitter.com/U2htrWlldn

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 8, 2021

The AG observed that it is true that in his statement, "scurrilous allegations" were made against the Judges of the Supreme Court and the allegations are of a general nature, completely lacking in material particulars.

Further, stressing that the allegations appear to have been made with the intent to be provocative, the AG, however, added that he did not believe that any member of the public would take such statements seriously.

"(I) am therefore of the opinion that these statements do not substantially affect the administration of justice or lower the authority of the Supreme Court in the public mind. I accordingly decline to grant consent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971," concluded AG's letter.

Importantly, the letter sent by lawyer Jindal had alleged that as per Azad's statement, the selection to the post of Judges is done solely on the basis of personal relations or family relations of the selected judges with the sitting judges.

The letter had further stated that Azad had alleged that the selection process is totally biased and that it takes place in the interest of sitting judges and their family members.

Referring to Azad's statement made during an interview on ABP news channel, in its programme called 'ABP Shikhar Sammelan' on 27th August 2021, the letter of Jindal had further stated thus:

"...(he) directly made allegations with intent to disgrace and scandalize the sitting judges of the highest Hon'ble court ,the Supreme Court of our country. The statements by ChandarShekhar Azad "Ravan" has scandalized the judgments passed by the Supreme court judges and accusing them of being corrupt. If this kind of precedent were allowed, political leaders would start making reckless allegation against the judges of the highest Court of our country and this trend would soon lead to the failure of an independent judiciary system. Through his statement, he has dishonoured the honorable Judges of the Supreme court who are the guardians of the whole legal system and disgraced and jeopardized the integrity of the entire judicial system. This kind of statement would affect the masses by growing sense of mistrust and concern among public about the fall in the standards of the judicial sytem."

Click Here To Read/Download AG's Letter