New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a petition seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal for criticising judicial functioning in a message to a souvenir in 1995.
An apex court bench of Justices J.M. Panchal and A.K. Patnaik said Sibal’s message in a souvenir had been quoted out of context.
The court said the message examines the evils prevailing in the judicial system. It noted that Sibal had also suggested corrective measures.
Pronouncing the order, Justice Panchal said: ‘Fair and constructive criticism (of judicial functioning) must be encouraged.’
The court said that the message was not a slur on the judges nor did interfere with the administration of justice or the court proceedings.
The plea for initiating contempt proceedings against the minister was filed after a leading English daily extracted two paragraphs from his two-page message that was published in a souvenir brought out by an organization Mahfil-e-Wokala, in association with some of Supreme Court lawyers.
Sibal in his message had said, ‘The public image of the legal community is at its nadir’. This state of affairs, he contended, has been caused by the ‘influx of large numbers into the profession, deterioration of moral standards of the legal community, questionable integrity of some of those who are in judiciary’.
Sibal said, ‘It seems that judges have started disciplining lawyers, judges themselves need disciplining. The judiciary has failed in its efforts to eradicate the phenomenon of corruption. This phenomenon includes receiving monetary benefits for judicial pronouncements, tendering blatantly dishonest judgments, know-towing with political personalities and obviously favouring the government and thereby losing all sense of propriety’.
