The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to consider a contempt plea for the moment over the Opposition leaders’ march inside the Court premises on October 12, observing that it would decide on further action after considering the response to the writ petition. CJI remarked:
“
“No contempt today we are only issuing notice in the Writ petition. We will see what the response is then we will take a call on it.”
Senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia submitted that it was “completely unacceptable” for the Court to be confronted with a political procession within its precincts. He said around 200 lawyers practising before the Supreme Court had signed a memorandum expressing concern over the incident. He submitted:
“
“It is completely unacceptable that this court is seized with a political procession. What has happened within the precincts of the Supreme court (Opposition March), this should not happen. I must share the anguish of the lawyers who are practising in the Supreme Court; 200 of them signed a memo and stated that this kind of browbeating the judiciary & shouting…”
Responding to the concerns, CJI Surya Kant said,“Nobody can browbeat us! Don’t worry about that. These attempts are all fragile attempts, nobody takes notice of them. Outside they can make any statements, we are aware of everything.”
Mr Bhatia further submitted that his petition sought protection of the vicinity and precincts of the Supreme Court, prompting Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan to suggest that the issue could be addressed on the administrative side. He then urged the Court to issue notice on his contempt petition, arguing that such an incident should never be repeated within the Court premises. However, CJI Surya Kant clarified that the Bench was not issuing notice on the contempt plea at this stage, stating that it would first consider the response to the writ petitions before deciding on further action in contempt.