New Delhi: Activist Saket Gokhale has written a letter to the Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal, seeking his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against the former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, for his statements made in India Today's conclave.
On 12th February, the former CJI had made some very serious remarks against the top court saying that his opinion about the judiciary is not very positive and only corporations willing to take chances with their millions of rupees go to the Supreme Court.
Some other statements of former CJI Gogoi on which contempt has been sought by Gokhale are:
"You want a 5 trillion dollar economy but you have a ram shackled judiciary."
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"The judicial system has not worked for more reason than one." "If you were to go to the court, you'd be only washing your dirty linen in the court. You won't get a verdict. I have no hesitation in saying it."
Gokhale writes that these "contemptuous" comments made by a former CJI carry far more weight than a layman.
"Moreover, the precedent established by your office in granting prosecution consent to contempt cases against comedian Kunal Karma and artist Rachita Taneja have established a benchmark for what constitutes contempt of court in your opinion.
The comments made by Gogoi are far more contemptuous in their degree and seriousness in scandalizing the Hon'ble Supreme Court than the innocuous tweets made by the other two individuals above named," reads the letter.
Kamra and Taneja have contempt proceedings pending in the top court against them for their tweets criticising SC.
Kamra had tweeted against the court for entertaining Republic TV editor in chief Arnab Goswami's bail plea and Taneja had made some sketches showing court in BJP's colour. The matter will be heard after four weeks.
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