The Hindu : National : Court to hear contempt plea against Karunanidhi separately

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 21, 2007
ePaper

National

National

Court to hear contempt plea against Karunanidhi separately

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has indicated that it will hear separately the contempt petition against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for his remarks in the 27 per cent OBC quota case allegedly casting aspersions on the judiciary.

This petition was listed for hearing along with the batch of petitions opposing the OBC quota.

On Thursday, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan told counsel for the petitioner ‘Traffic’ K.R. Ramaswamy that the contempt petition would be heard after a decision in the quota case and adjourned the hearing. Senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina, appearing for Tamil Nadu, opposed the petition stating the court had in July rejected a quo warranto plea on the same issue.

“Blow to rule of law”

The petitioner said the Chief Minister’s comment, soon after the court stayed the implementation of the quota law, dealt a severe blow to the rule of law. If such comments were entertained, people would lose faith in the judiciary.

The petitioner referred to newspaper reports, which quoted Mr. Karunanidhi as having said, “a situation in which a mere two or three persons [judges] could determine the fate and the future of a hundred crore people is harmful to democracy.”

This statement was nothing but scandalising the court and intended to denigrate the judiciary. It amounted to virtually warning the Supreme Court judges and was nothing but interference with administration of justice, he said and sought a direction to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against Mr. Karunanidhi.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National