New Delhi: Attorney General of India K.K. Venugopal on Tuesday refused to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
A lawyer named Vineet Jindal had written to Venugopal about initiating the proceedings. “This country has a legal system where one had 100 per cent freedom to express their opinion. It is very clear that the BJP is inserting its people in all these institutions of the country. It is very obvious. They are taking away the institutional framework of this country,” Gandhi was quoted as saying in a recent interview, according to NDTV. Jindal claimed these remarks insulted the judiciary and lowered its dignity.
The AG said Gandhi’s statements about the judiciary made no specific references to the Supreme Court, LiveLaw reported. Under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the AG can only grant consent for contempt proceedings pertaining to the Supreme Court, Venugopal said. “Thus the question of my granting consent would not arise,” LiveLaw quoted him as saying.
But even if the remarks did fall under his jurisdictions, Venugopal suggested that he would not have given consent for the contempt proceedings. “In any event, I am of the opinion that the statements in question are too vague to be said to have lowered the authority of the institution in the eyes of the public,” the AG said.