CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu advocate-general Vijay Narayan has issued notices to auditor S Gurumurthy on two applications filed by lawyers seeking consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceeding against the rightist ideologue. Gurumurthy shall appear before the law officer on February 16 to offer explanation. Advocate S Doraiswamy and S Kumaradevan wanted him punished for criminal contempt for his reported derogatory comments against judges of the higher judiciary.
Admitting the applications, advocate-general Vijay Narayan has directed the parties to the application, including Gurumurthy, to appear before him either in person or through a counsel. According to Doraisamy, on January 14, Gurumurthy made a contemptuous statement against judges of the Supreme Court and high courts.
“It seems the contemnor S Gurumurthy thinks that he can make any kind of defamatory speech against high court judges and if any contempt proceedings are initiated he can be let off by making an unconditional apology,” Doraisamy said.
The statement lowers the honesty of the high court judges and amounts to interfering with the administration of justice and hence he is liable to be punished for making a contemptuous speech under section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, the lawyer said.
“When a former judge of the court Justice CS Karnan made a defamatory statement against judges’ police registered a case against him and he was arrested and put behind the bars. But the authorities are very reluctant to take action against Gurumurthy, since he happened to be a strongman of BJP,” he added.
Therefore, he wanted advocate-general Vijay Narayan to grant written consent under section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, to file a criminal contempt petition against Gurumurthy in the high court.