JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s controversial remarks alleging rampant corruption in the judiciary have now landed him in a legal soup. The Rajasthan High Court on Saturday issued a show-cause notice to Gehlot on a PIL seeking suo moto criminal contempt proceedings against him.
A division bench headed by Justice M M Shrivastava and Justice Ashutosh Kumar heard the matter on Saturday and issued the notice to Gehlot, directing him to respond within three weeks.Alleging serious corruption in the judiciary, Gehlot had said that often decisions of the court are virtually written out by the lawyers themselves.He also said that ‘whether it is lower courts or high court, the situation is serious and
countrymen should think in this regard.’
It was said in the PIL that this statement of the Chief Minister is going to hurt the dignity of the judiciary and bring down its reputation. In its notice, the High Court has asked Gehlot on what the basis did the CM talk about corruption in the courts and bringing written judgments of the lawyers. After Gehlot’s statement, in the petition filed in the High Court, it was argued that the CM has given a statement that lowers the reputation of the lawyers along with the judges.
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Advocate Shivcharan Gupta, who filed the PIL in the High Court, said that the Chief Minister’s statement has tarnished the reputation of the Judiciary. They said that the statement comes under the definition of contempt of court; hence the High Court should take cognizance under Article 215 of the Constitution and punish the contemnor.In protest against the chief minister’s comment, thousands of advocates boycotted work in the high court and lower courts in Jodhpur on Friday.