'Accusing judiciary of political bias is grave contempt'
NEW DELHI: Under constant attack from a group of lawyers for delivering certain judgments in favour of the ruling dispensation, Justice Arun Mishra has held that making a personal attack on the judges and attributing political motives on their rulings are "contempt of gravest form".
Justice Mishra was singled out by the four most senior judges in the unparalleled press conference of January 2018 where issues were raised on assigning some politically important cases selectively to some benches, including the one he headed then.
At that time, several important cases, including Judge Loya's case, had been assigned to the bench headed by Justice Mishra.
Authoring a verdict on behalf of a bench also including Justice Vineet Saran, Justice Mishra has now come down heavily upon a group of lawyers, who he said, are hungry of "cheap publicity" and think they are above the Bar Council.
"It has been seen from time to time that various attacks have been made on the judicial system. It has become very common to the members of the Bar to go to press/media to criticise the judges in person and to commit sheer contempt by attributing political colours to the judgments. It is nothing less than an act of contempt of gravest form," maintained the judgment.