Kerala High Court grants bail to V4Kochi President Nipun Cherian in contempt of court case

The Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to Nipun Cherian, President of ‘V4 Kochi’ in relation to a suo motu criminal contempt case initiated against him for a Facebook post on the V4 Kochi page that leveled corruption allegations against a High Court Judge [Suo Motu Contempt Criminal v Nipun Cherian]..On February 21, the court had directed the District Police Chief, Ernakulam to issue a non-bailable warrant for the arrest and production of Cherian as he didn’t appear before the court despite orders.Accordingly, Cherian was produced before the court on Monday by the police. He produced an affidavit on enquiry by the court.A division bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammad Nias CP granted bail to Cherian subject to certain conditions by treating his affidavit as his assent to appear before the court under contempt of court laws.“Since the respondent contemnor has now agreed to appear before this Court to defend the Contempt of Court proceedings against him, we deem it appropriate to enlarge him on bail, by treating his affidavit as a self-bond for his attendance as provided in Rule 11(v) of the Contempt of Courts (High Court of Kerala) Rules under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, but subject to the following conditions.” the Court said.The following are the conditions subject to which bail was granted:He shall appear before the High Court on all days when the case is posted, unless otherwise exempted by this Court, and shall not cause any disturbance in the premises of the High Court, either by himself or through his party workers and others;Should he require the assistance of any person while conducting his case before the High Court, he shall seek the permission of the Court to do so and shall avail such assistance only after obtaining such permission;He shall refrain from holding any agitation, demonstration, protest, press conference etc., and/or issuing statements with regard to the conduct of any judge or other officer/staff of the High Court particularly with regard to the subject matter of this contempt of court case, on any platform, private or public, including the print, electronic and social media, during the pendency of these proceedings;If the respondent contemnor defaults on any of the above conditions, the bail granted to him by this order will be recalled/cancelled without any further notice to him..Cherian gave an undertaking to the Court that unlike what he had done previously, he would not insist on being accompanied by his party workers in the court premises and that he wouldn’t give any press conference regarding the court, judge or the contempt of court case against him.In response to his submission that he was handcuffed while being taken to the medical check-up after his arrest, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) stated that it was done only because there was an apprehension that Cherian's fellow party workers would interrupt their path.The Court accepted the submission of the ACP regarding handcuffing Cherian and recorded the same in its order..The matter will be heard next on March 7..[Read Order]