New Delhi: IPS officer Jacob Thomas on Saturday moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash the contempt of court proceedings initiated suo motu by the Kerala High Court. In a special leave petition, the petitioner said the proceedings were initiated on March 20 by the Registrar General of the HC on the orders of the Chief Justice of the High Court. By an order dated March 16, the HC held that prima facie the complaint forwarded by the petitioner to the Central Vigilance Commission tantamount to criminal contempt as defined in the Contempt of Courts Act.
The High Court has so proceeded after coming to a finding that the petitioner had in his complaint, asked the CVC to initiate an enquiry against two judges of the High Court. Denying these charges, the petitioner said the complaint was not against two HC judges, whose names were mentioned to show that they heard certain high profile matters. He made a complaint before the CVC against the prosecution in not pursuing the high profile cases of corruption, which includes politicians and bureaucrats in a proper manner and sought for investigation in relation to the same.
The complaint dated 26.2.2018 was clearly against the prosecutors and the investigators who have misled the judicial system in arriving at a certain conclusion in high profile corruption cases involving the politicians and ministers of the state. It was submitted that the petitioner in very unequivocal terms has mentioned in the complaint itself that he does not intend to cast any allegations or aspersions against the judges and that what he clearly intends by the said complaint is an enquiry into the way the high profile corruption cases have been handled by the investigators and conducted by the prosecution. The petitioner had not even remotely alleged anything, let alone casting any aspersions, against the judges.
The petitioner had mentioned the names of the judges in the said complaint because the above mentioned high profile corruption cases against the politicians/ministers/former ministers had been heard by these judges. The High Court by its order dated 16.3.2018 has already found prima facie that the petitioner has in fact committed a criminal contempt by filing the said complaint/ disclosure dated 26.2.2018. He said the High Court ought to have read the complaint/disclosure as a whole and ought to have taken a view that no allegations were made against the judges. The petitioner prayed for quashing the proceedings and an interim stay till the disposal of the SLP.
