The Madras High Court on Thursday passed an interim order requesting Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram to not proceed further with the hearing on an application made by advocate S. Doraisamy of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK) seeking his consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against S. Gurumurthy, Editor of Tamil magazine Thuglak.
Justice Anita Sumanth granted the interim order at the instance of advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing Mr. Gurumurthy who had filed a writ petition challenging A-G’s September 27, 2021 decision to recall an order passed by his predecessor. On March 31, 2021, the then A-G Vijay Narayan had refused to give consent to the TPDK leader to initiate the contempt proceedings.
Mr. Jethmalani argued that the incumbent A-G had no authority to recall an order passed by his predecessor since there was no such express power for review provided under the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971. On the other hand, Mr. Doraisamy told the court that the petitioner had impleaded only him as the sole respondent to the writ petition and not the A-G.
Though the A-G had recalled his predecessor’s order on an application preferred by him, the advocate said: “I am not the author of the recall order. I cannot answer the questions raised by the petitioner. I am not the authority. On this count itself, this writ petition is not maintainable.” After hearing him, the judge asked him to file his counter affidavit on both maintainability as well as the legal issues raised by the petitioner.
Granting time till February 24 for filing of the counter affidavit, the judge asked Additional Government Pleader T.N.C. Koushik to convey to the A-G, the court’s request to not proceed with the hearing till then.
In his affidavit, Mr. Gurumurthy had contended that an application filed by the advocate in January last year seeking the then A-G’s consent for initiating contempt proceedings, had reached a logical conclusion with Mr. Narayan refusing to grant such consent.
However, after May 2021, when there was a change in the A-G’s office, Mr. Doraisamy had chosen to file a recall petition and it was allowed. Such a course of action was unprecedented and in contravention of the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, he claimed. He also alleged that there was a “motive” behind the recall order and said that he is a bitter critic of DMK, which came to power in the State following the Assembly elections held last year.
