Justice Katju moves SC for early hearing of contempt case

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju on Friday moved the apex court seeking early hearing of a contempt case against him for allegedly using “intemperate” language and “scandalising” the judiciary.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to look into the submission made by senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, on behalf of Justice Katju, who mentioned the matter for early hearing, saying it should be listed before the winter vacation.

To this, the bench said, “You file a proper application and we will look into it”.

Dhavan said that he has already file the application.

On November 11, the apex court had issued contempt notice to Justice Katju after taking note of Katju’s statement in a blog and said that it constituted a serious assault on judges and not on the judgement.

Justice Katju had appeared in the court following its October 17 direction asking him to be present and debate his Facebook post criticising an SC verdict by which the convict in Soumya rape case had escaped gallows as he was acquitted of the murder charge.

It had asked him to appear before the court to point out the “fundamental flaws” in the case.