Attorney General Refuses Consent To Initiate Contempt Proceedings Against Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb

The Attorney General for India KK Venugopal last week declined to grant consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Tripura's Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for his comments allegedly made against the Judiciary.

The AG was considering a letter forwarded by Supreme Court lawyer, Abu Sohel requesting him to grant consent under Section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 to initiate contempt proceedings against the CM.

Attorney General for India KK Venugopal refuses to grant consent to initiate Contempt Proceedings against Tripura's Chief Minister Biplab Deb (@BjpBiplab) for his remarks made in front of Civil Servants asking them to work for people without "worrying about contempt of court". pic.twitter.com/Ni01579MDO

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 5, 2021

The AG observed that the contents of the statements made by CM Biplab Kumar Deb, as extracted by Lawyer Sohel, to say the least, are deplorable, and wholly uncalled for, however, he added that certain subsequent events (clarification statement) seem to have taken place.

According to Sohel, the CM had made the following comments during a biennial conference of Tripura Civil Service Officers Association on 25/09/21:

"They Say it is the System, But don't do all this with me. There will be problems within the system, What problem will take place? Sir , We can not take any risk. There will be contempt of court. Who has ever been jailed for contempt of court? I am there; I will go first before any of you are jailed. It's not that easy; To take anyone to jail, You need police and police is controlled by Chief Minister. They can't jail anyone. Police will say, We didn't find anyone. What to do? They keep saying that there will be contempt of court, But I am "Baap" here; Power is in the hands of who runs the government. Today it is sometimes called the court of contempt. Has there been any contempt of court till now? Former Chief Secretary said that he will be jailed for contempt of court, Then let him go and die;"

The AG, in his response to the letter, noted that when a group of lawyers prayed for contempt proceedings to be initiated against the Chief Minister before the Tripura HC, the Advocate General for the State had apprised of the Court of a subsequent statement made by the Chief Minister, which the court had accepted and had refused to initiate contempt.

Importantly, in his subsequent statement, the CM had claimed that his remarks were twisted and wrongly reported to some print and electronic media to project disregard to the judiciary and judicial institutions.

He had further clarified that he held all the judicial institutions in the highest esteem and was duty-bound to uphold the majesty of the judiciary and lastly, he had stated that did tell the officers or even remotely intended to convey any message to disregard courts or disrespect court orders as reported.

Against this backdrop, the AG response concludes by observing thus:

"I am sure you would appreciate that, in view of the fact that the High Court has accepted the statement made by the Chief Minister that he was misquoted and that he has the highest respect for the judiciary, it would not be appropriate for me to grant consent for initiating contempt proceedings. i, therefore, decline consent for the reasons stated."

Recently, the Advocate General for Tripura Siddhartha Shankar Dey had declined to grant his consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against State's Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for his alleged remarks "insulting the Courts of India and for scandalizing and attempting to lower its dignity".