The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders on a petition raising concerns over their march to the Supreme Court and entering the court registry on October 12 for filing a petition.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi sought the responses of Gandhi and others on a plea filed by four lawyers seeking restrictions on political demonstrations inside court premises.
The plea was filed by advocates Digant Mishra, Divyansh Bisht, Ashish Gopal Garg and Shweta Garg through advocate-on-record Utkarsh Jaiswal.
The petitioners have also sought contempt action against the Kerala unit of Congress party for their remarks directed against Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
"Regulating processions and protests in the vicinity of the Supreme Court and High Court. That is the prayer. It is completely unacceptable that this Supreme Court is seized with processions and what has happened within the precincts of the Supreme Court. This cannot happen. I must share the anguish of lawyers practising in the Supreme Court. Two hundred of them have signed a memorandum. They have stated very clearly that this kind of browbeating of the judiciary," said Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for the petitioners.
"Nobody can browbeat the judiciary," CJI Kant responded.
Bhatia said that the precincts of the Court have to be protected.
"We are not sitting in ivory towers. We know what statements they are making outside and what they are saying in Court. We know everything," the CJI responded.
"There is a separate prayer for criminal contempt itself. I would urge strongly that notice be issued because such an incident cannot be repeated ever in the Supreme Court," Bhatia said.
However, the Court did not issue notice on the prayer for contempt action. Instead, it asked the respondents to reply to the other prayers.
"No contempt today. We are only issuing notice. Let us see what the response is, and then we will take it forward," the CJI stated.
The plea was filed following the opposition march to Supreme Court on October 12 and a post by the X handle of the Kerala unit of the Congress on the same date.
The X post said,
"Dear Surya Kant, If law and order is not your domain, resign now. We will find your replacement who can handle it."
The petition said that the post addressed the CJI by name, without the courtesy of his title and sought to coerce a sitting Chief Justice who had declined to discuss sub-judice matters outside the courtroom.
It also referred to a post by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra the same evening, "Surya clearly Can't. So we will."
Besides the Union government, the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, Mahua Moitra and Akhilesh Yadav are respondents to the plea.
As per the plea, Articles 121 and 124(4) provide the exclusive mechanism for removing a judge, and the demand by the Congress Kerala Unit was an attempt to overawe the Chief Justice which the constitutional scheme forbids.
The petition also said that the claim that a party would find the CJI's replacement was contrary to the constitutional scheme for appointing judges.
It also cited the resolutions of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association condemning the calls for the CJI's resignation.
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