MADURAI: Eight retired Madras High Court judges have appealed to a bench of Justices G R Swaminathan and K Rajasekar to drop the contempt action proposed against advocate S Vanchinathan for writing a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking an inquiry against Justice Swaminathan for allegedly demonstrating casteist and communal bias while discharging his judicial duties.
The division bench had on Thursday summoned Vanchinathan to the court and said that his actions prima facie amounted to criminal contempt of court. The bench had also asked Vanchinathan whether he stood by his statement.
Since Vanchinathan sought for a ‘written’ query from the bench, an order was passed directing him to reply to the above question in-person on Monday at 1.15 pm.
In a letter on Saturday, the eight former judges, including justices K Chandru, D Hariparanthaman, C T Selvam, Akbar Ali, P Kalaiyarasan, S Vimala, K K Sasidharan and S S Sundar — appealed to the division bench not to initiate any action against the advocate at this stage.
‘Complaining against judge not contempt of court’
The Supreme Court in 1995 in a case between C Ravichandran Iyer and Justice AM Bhattacharjee, had directed that if anyone wants to send a petition against a judge’s conduct, it should be sent to the CJI directly. If and when the CJI is of the opinion that an investigation is required to probe into the truthfulness of the petition, he can constitute an ‘in-house inquiry’ and if it is found that there is a prima facie truth in the allegations made, the CJI can take action in the matter, the top court had said in the order. Hence, in the absence of any such action taken by the CJI on Vanchinathan’s petition, it will be premature for the division bench to initiate action against him, said Justice Chandru, who had signed the letter on behalf of all eight judges.
Noting that Vanchinathan has been summoned to appear before the bench again on Monday, the ex-judges appealed to the bench to drop the proceedings and wait for the CJI’s decision. “We are issuing this appeal only in the interest of the judicial institution and we have no other interest in the matter,” the former judges said.
Addressing a press meet in Madurai earlier on Saturday, Justice Hariparanthaman demanded Justice Swaminathan to withdraw the proceedings against Vanchinathan. Hariparanthaman said Justice Swaminathan has no power to question the advocate over the allegations made against him. A person has the right to raise a complaint against a judge, and the same cannot be construed as ‘contempt of court’, he said. Moreover, Justice Swaminathan has not specified where, when and what was spoken by the advocate that amounted to contempt of court, Hariparanthaman pointed out.
Advocate Vanchinathan said he has complained with the cybercrime police regarding the leakage of his letter sent to the CJI on social media.