AG Venugopal declines consent for initiation of contempt proceedings against Chandra Shekhar Azad
Oct 08, 2021
New Delhi [India], October 9 : The Attorney-General of India KK Venugopal on Thursday refused 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 declined to give consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Azad while considering a letter forwarded by Delhi based lawyer Vineet Jindal who had sought AG's permission to initiate contempt proceedings against Azad.
Venugopal observed that it is true that Azad's statements are "scurrilous allegations" against the Judges of the Supreme Court, however, the allegations are of a general nature, completely lacking in material particulars.
"I have carefully perused the contents of your email dated August 27, 2021, and have watched the video of the statements made by Chandrashekhar Azad, which are in Hindi. It is true that scurrilous allegations have been made against the judges of the Supreme Court. The allegations are of a general nature, and completely lacking in material particulars," the response of AG said.
The letter of Venugopal released on October 7, further stated that the statements intended to be provocative, however, the statements do not substantially affect the administration of justice or lower the authority of the Supreme Court in the public mind.
"I do not believe that any member of the public would take such statements seriously and 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," said Venugopal in the letter.
Jindal in his letter 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.
Azad's statement was made during an interview on a news channel on August 27, 2021.
