Supreme Court Issues Contempt Notice To Advocate ML Sharma & AoR For Scandalising High Court In Petition

The Supreme Court on Friday took serious objection to the averments in a petition which attributed motives to a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in deciding a case and issued contempt notice to the lawyers connected with the Special Leave Petition- Advocate ML Sharma, Advocate-on-Record Deepak Goel.

The Court also issued contempt notice to Vijay Singh, Assistant Accountant in Municipal Counsel at Tikambarh who has signed the affidavit.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay Sreeniwas Oka was considering a special leave petition filed by the Municipal Counsel Tikambarh. The bench noticed that the petition had alleged that the division bench of the High Court had "unduly favoured" one party and thereby attributed "judicial misconduct" to the bench.

"We have a little doubt that the endeavor is to scandalize the Court", the bench observed. On the bench asking who drafted the petition, the arguing counsel (ML Sharma) replied that he did. Even if the petition was drafted by the arguing counsel, the bench said that Advocate-on-Record is liable for putting his signature on the petition as the filing counsel.

The bench directed the three contemnors to be present in the Court on the next date of hearing, December 5.

Last week, another bench had issued contempt notice against another AoR for signing a petition which had derogatory averments against the Karnataka High Court, observing that a lawyer who signs a petition which contains contemptuous statements is also liable for contempt of court.

Case Title : Municipal Council Tikamgarh v. Matsya Udyog Sahkari Samiti and Ors| SLP(c) 18820/2022

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