The Supreme Court spared the rod of punishment under contempt for Member of Parliament (MP) Manoj Tiwari but condemned his "misplaced bravado" to break the seal on an East Delhi illegal dairy two months ago.
Leaving it to the wisdom of the political leadership in the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to take action against him, the Court was pained to see how an elected member of a responsible political party would stoop so law by taking the law into his hands.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said, "We are extremely pained by the machismo and brazen manner in which Manoj Tiwari took the law into his own hands and broke or tampered with the seal on Prem Singh's premises. We are pained because Manoj Tiwari is an elected MP and hopefully a responsible citizen of Delhi."
When it came to ordering punishment, the Court found that his action could not be treated as contempt of court since the seal was placed not by the Court-appointed Monitoring Committee (MC) but the East Delhi Municipal Corporation's Veterinary Services Department. The MC informed the Court about the incident in its report to the Court due to which the judges mistook the action to be a transgression of the Committee's direction.
However, Tiwari aggravated his own wrong by making statements accusing the MC of running a sealing racket in connivance with corrupt municipal officers. When Tiwari appeared in Court to explain his conduct, the elected representative blamed it on the mob saying that if he did not break the seal, the mob would have turned violent. Finding this reply "shocking" the bench wondered, "Should an elected representative of the people defy the rule of law in this manner," as tomorrow if the mob insists, the MP may commit an even serious offence. The Court found Tiwari's action to be "irresponsible" as he acted not as a leader but a blind follower of the mob.
On the allegations levelled by him, Court said, "the shoulders of this Court and the MC are broad enough to take criticism in its stride" as it was categorical that such "misplaced political propaganda" should enjoy no place in Court. The bench hoped better sense prevailed and the BJP step up to curb such "undemocratic tendencies".