No point punishing Nawab Malik who is already behind bars: Bombay High Court adjourns Dhyandev Wankhede contempt plea

The Bombay High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing in the contempt of court petition filed against Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik after noting that Malik is already behind bars in a money laundering case. .A Bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav stated that punishing Malik as of now is futile since he is already in jail."Malik is anyways behind bars now. If we even punish him today what sense would it make," remarked Justice Kathawalla..The Cabinet Minister had earlier been remanded by a Mumbai court to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody for eight days in a money laundering case involving underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.ED is investigating into a charge that Malik had allegedly purchased a property at a rate lower than market value from Dawood..After the Court was informed that Malik is in custody till March 3, 2022, the Court adjourned the hearing to next week. .The High Court was hearing a contempt of court petition filed by Dhyandev Wankhede, father of former Mumbai Zonal Director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Sameer Wankhede.Dhyandev Wankhede had moved the High Court seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the Nationalist Congress Party leader for the alleged continued breaches of his own undertakings to the High Court.Malik had undertaken not to put out any defamatory tweets against Wankhede during the pendency of a defamation suit filed by Wankhede against Malik, which is the genesis of the legal dispute between the two parties.Opposing the contentions in the plea, Malik had claimed that the interviews were acts that were given under bonafide belief that they were within the ambit of the undertaking and hence, there was no intent to breach the undertakings.Not satisfied with the explanation given by Malik in his affidavit, the Court had directed the registry to issue a show-cause cause notice to Malik to seek his response. Malik’s affidavit was filed in response to this notice. .Malik stated in this reply that Wankhede deliberately inserted the name of his son, "Sameer Wankhede", in the transcripts of the texts that were allegedly in contempt. Malik claimed that the same were used to claim that NCP leader had allegedly breached undertakings given in the IRS officer's father's suit."The contempt jurisdiction is a quasi-criminal jurisdiction. ...this Court was wrongfully induced to entertain the contempt petition and issue notice on the basis of such false/ deliberately incorrect extracts. ...in view of the interpolations/ false additions in extracts relied on in the petition," Malik underscored, seeking withdrawal of the show-cause notice issued.Malik claimed that he had merely referred to the schedule of hearing of the complaint filed before the caste scrutiny committee pertaining to Sameer’s fake caste certificate.He denied any “clever drafting“ or having any intention to breach the undertaking given to the Court.Malik submitted that his right as a spokesperson of the Nationalist Congress Party to criticise central agencies and the conduct of its officers could not be restricted to acts of a particular period.”…contempt jurisdiction is a quasi criminal jurisdiction and cannot be utilised to extend my undertaking to such acts of public officers in the course of performance of their public duties”, Malik emphasised while seeking dismissal of the contempt plea..Wankhede filed a rejoinder in reply, stating that the inaccuracies in the transcript were bonafide and unintentional. He argued that they do not materially alter the contemptuous nature of Malik's statements.

No point punishing Nawab Malik who is already behind bars: Bombay High Court adjourns Dhyandev Wankhede contempt plea

Neha Joshi

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