SC judges contributing individually: CJI

Supreme Court judges are contributing to the Kerala flood relief fund in their individual capacities, informed Chief Justice Dipak Misra on Monday.

Joining the noble cause, the CJI admitted that each judge in his individual capacity has come forward to donate towards the plight facing Kerala after over nine lakh people were forced to leave their homes and settle in relief camps.

The occasion for the CJI to make this comment came when the Court was considering the punishment to be imposed on a NGO for making frivolous charges against the judiciary. Although the NGO Bhartiya Matdata Sangathan’s General Secretary Vimal Wadhwan, a lawyer by profession, sought unconditional apology, the bench was not pleased and thought about imposing a hefty fine on him to arrest this trend of lawyers abusing the judiciary at will.

Although, the organisation proposed to pay Rs 50,000, the apex court felt that the amount should be a deterrent so that no lawyer in future would dare to make any allegations against judiciary and later decide to withdraw it. The bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud proposed a minimum of Rs 25 lakh. At this juncture, Attorney General KK Venugopal, who was appearing in the matter, proposed that an amount of Rs 5 lakh could be reasonable and the money could be utilised for the flood relief victims in Kerala.

The bench was in agreement with this suggestion. CJI said that judges in their individual capacity are contributing to the same cause and the money collected shall be forwarded to the concerned State agencies for relief activities. Venugopal, who hails from Kerala, had recently donated a sum of Rs 1 crore for the Kerala relief fund and lawyers of the Supreme Court had collected relief material that was sent to Kerala which included toiletries, clothes, food, and groceries.

Venugopal said that such a tragedy has not been witnessed by the State in the past 100 years and it may take a minimum of five to ten years for the State to recover what it has lost. The Supreme Court Bar Association too has decided to donate Rs 30 lakh to the Kerala relief fund.

On the amount to be deposited by the alleged contemnor NGO, the hearing was fixed for Monday.