KOCHI: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday said the remark made by Local Self-Government Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty in a speech in Kozhikode on January 30 was outrageous and amounted to contempt of court.

The court said the Minister could mitigate the damage done to the judicial system to some extent if an unconditional apology was tendered to the public in general, to regain the confidence the public have in the system.

Grave comments

The Bench of acting Chief Justice K.S. Radhakrishan and Justice M. N. Krishnan observed that ``we are prima facie of the view that the words spoken by the Minister are scurrilous abuse and so grave and have a tendency to shake the basic structure of the judicial system and (are) likely to undermine the deep-rooted faith and respects for our courts among the general public, thereby diminishes the confidence of the people in our judicial system."

The court made the observations while passing orders on the question whether the Minister's remark amounted to contempt of court under Section 2 (c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The case was instituted by the High Court Registrar-General on a directive by the acting Chief Justice. The statement had tended to scandalise and lower the dignity of the court in the eyes of the public, according to the charges.

Not a layman

The court said that "the first respondent (Mr. Mohammed Kutty) is not a layman but holding the seat of a Minister who has taken oath of office to uphold the Constitution and laws and the words spoken by him would have great impact in the mind of the general public compared to that of a speech made by a bureaucrat or a former Minister or a former judge."

The court, however, said that it did not propose to give any positive direction to the Minister to tender an apology or express any regret to the general public, because an act of apology should be an act of real contrition and repentance. The Bench added that if such a course was adopted by him, it would mitigate the damage caused to the system to some extent and which might weigh with the court if it finally decided to consider the plea of the Minister to accept the apology tendered by him.

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