AG grants consent to SCBA's contempt of court case against Nikhil Wagle, Sanjay Raut over remarks on CJI Kant

Attorney General for India R Venkataramani has given his consent to a criminal contempt of court case filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) against journalist Nikhil Wagle and Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut over their public statements concerning Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant.

The petition was filed on October 15 and the AG granted his consent for action under Section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 the same day.

"In my considered view the tweets made by Shri Nikhil Wagle, Journalist and Shri Sanjay Raut, Member of Parliament are prima-facie scandalous, intended to lower the esteem of the Hon'ble the Supreme Court of India and particularly the Chief Justice of India," the AG said in his consent letter.

The statements followed the CJI's decision last week to decline a request from a delegation of opposition parties to meet him personally. The CJI said that a petition could be filed before the Court instead.

As per the petition, Wagle then posted "**** you CJI!" from his X account in response to a report by The Hindu on the CJI's decision.

Raut's remarks to the media were carried by IANS on X on October 12.

"We have also seen judges attending political programs of the BJP in states where it is in power, and chief ministers organizing dinners to welcome High Court and Supreme Court judges," Raut was quoted as saying. The petition states that he also referred to photographs of judges playing badminton with political figures in London.

"The aforementioned statement is false and contrary to records and is made to scandalise and diminish the authority of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," the petition states.

It relies on a June 19 order of the Delhi High Court, which found that photographs circulated as being from a badminton event in London were from a November 2025 event at Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi. The High Court had directed that the content be taken down.

The SCBA said that it does not seek to prevent fair and temperate criticism of the judiciary.

"The deliberate scandalous words / expressions being willingly used by the Respondents go beyond fair criticism and are capable of scandalising this Hon'ble Court thereby lowering the authority of this Hon'ble Court," the petition states.

The SCBA has also asked the Court to direct X Corp, Meta, Google and IANS to preserve the posts, videos and account records, and to restrain Wagle and Raut from making similar imputations against the CJI and Supreme Court judges while the case is pending.

In his letter, the AG said that the statement attributed to Wagle "is not only abusive but also certainly a matter of such a low level. No right-minded person will make such statement for public consumption."

The AG said that Raut's remarks on judges attending BJP programmes and Chief Ministers hosting dinners for judges "are not based on any facts". On the badminton photographs, he noted that the High Court order predated Raut's statement.

"It is important that the Hon'ble Member of Parliament should have verified the facts before making such scandalous allegations," the AG said.

Meanwhile, Wagle on Thursday shared on X a letter addressed to the AG, in which he tendered an unconditional apology to the CJI and the Supreme Court. He stated that he had deleted the previous post and requested the AG not to pursue the matter further.