Advocate General Vijay Narayan on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to BJP national secretary H. Raja seeking explanation as to why statutory consent should not be granted to a lawyer to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings for his recent “scandalous” remarks against the court.
The AG has asked Mr. Raja to appear either in person or through his lawyer on October 3 for providing the explanation. Under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971, the law officer’s consent must be obtained before listing any criminal contempt of court petition before the Division Bench concerned.
The legal provision was aimed at avoiding contempt proceedings on frivolous issues. The AG had issued a similar show-cause notice to Thangatamilselvan, one of the 18 disqualified MLAs, in June this year for his remarks against the then Chief Justice of Madras High Court Indira Banerjee (now a Supreme Court judge).
In so far as the present issue related to Mr. Raja was concerned, the show-cause notice had been issued pursuant to a contempt of court petition filed against him by M. Kannadasan, secretary of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam. The petition had been filed in the High Court Registry which, in turn, referred it to the A-G for his consent after numbering the case. In his affidavit, the petitioner said the BJP leader had made derogatory remarks against the court when he picked up a quarrel with the police in Pudukottai district on Saturday.
When the police cited High Court orders for having refused permission to his party cadre to erect a stage on a public road for Vinayakar Chathurthi celebrations, he had used objectionable language to insinuate that he cared a damn about the court. He had also reportedly abused the policemen and accused them of being biased against the Hindus.
Reproducing his statements verbatim in the affidavit, the petitioner said the remarks were made with the intention of scandalising and lowering the authority of the High Court.