Supreme Court Accepts Maharashtra IAS Officer's Apology For Affidavit Suggesting That Court Wasn't Following Law

The Supreme Court today discharged the contempt notice issued to Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Forest Department), Maharashtra government, taking exception to certain statements in an affidavit filed by him which suggested that the Court was not following the law.

On being apprised that the affidavit in question was finalized by various persons, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan was of the view that guilt could not be fastened on the Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Forest Department) alone. Accordingly, the contempt notice was discharged.

The order was dictated as follows:

"On a specific query, learned counsel appearing for the state states that there were various persons involved in finalizing the affidavit. We therefore find that the noticee cannot be held singly guilty for making the averments. We therefore accept the apology and discharge the notice issued to Shri Rajesh Kumar."

Notably, pursuant to the last order, the Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Forest Department) travelled from Mumbai to Delhi and was personally present before the court. Regretting that the bench was not informed earlier about other persons partaking in finalization of the affidavit, Justice Gavai said to Maharashtra's counsel, "Had you told us that you also had some share in that, we couldn't have called the officer all the way from Mumbai".

"We don't have any pleasure in calling the officers. As a matter of fact, I have deprecated the practice of High Courts in calling the officers to the Court", added the judge.

In passing the order, an affidavit tendering unconditional apology was also considered by the bench, which stated that the objectionable averments in the earlier affidavit were made inadvertently and there was no intention to act in contempt of the court.

Before parting, the bench also conveyed its apology to the concerned Additional Chief Secretary and Collector, indicating that if it was aware of other persons' partaking in finalization of the affidavit, the previous order would not have been passed.

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Case Title: IN RE : T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., W.P.(C) No. 202/1995