Delhi MLA Om Prakash Sharma
The two-judge bench hearing the sealing matter Tuesday gave an earful to BJP MLA Om Prakash Sharma and Municipal Councillor Gunjan Gupta for directing their protests against the sealing drive at the Chief Minister. “How can you make such statements against a head of state, just because he belongs to another political party. He has nothing to do with the sealing drive. You are destroying the institution. Are you trying to tell people of this country that you can say whatever you want to about a CM,” Justice Madan B Lokur told the duo, who appeared in court after contempt notices to them for allegedly obstructing the drive in Shahdara.
The court discharged contempt notices against them after watching videos of the protests. The bench said, “It appears that the alleged contemnors were only discussing the matter with police with a view to convince them that the sealing operation should not continue. In our opinion, this does not amount to contempt of the orders of this court or obstructing the monitoring committee and Delhi Police from carrying out its functions.”
The committee, comprising K J Rao, former advisor to the EC; Bhure Lal, chairman of the Environment Pollution Control Authority; and Major General (Retd) Som Jhingan, was set up in 2006 by the Supreme Court.
However, the bench said it had found objectionable “the waving of flags of a particular political party and carrying banners which are derogatory towards the Chief Minister”.
It added that “apart from the fact that the CM has nothing to do with the matter, it is extremely unfortunate that the head of government of Delhi, or any head of government for that matter, should be referred to in a derogatory manner through placards being carried by supporters of elected representatives.”
“We can’t have people do this against our CMs, our PM. You cannot insult the prime minister and any chief minister just because they are not from your political party… Tell your people this is not acceptable,” the court said, asking the duo to take steps to convince their supporters not to insult public functionaries.
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