Supreme Court bars advocate from practice for 1 year
The bench also initiated a fresh contempt case against Mathews Nedumpara and three other lawyers.
New Delhi: Taking a serious view of the insinuations made by advocate Mathews Nedumpara, the Supreme Court on Wednesday barred him from practicing in the apex court for one year for contempt of court charges.
A bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Vineet Saran, while sentencing him to three months imprisonment, said the sentence would remain suspended as long as Mr Nedumpara complied with his undertaking to the court that he will not “browbeat judges of the Supreme Court or Bombay High Court”.
The bench also initiated a fresh contempt case against Mr Nedumpara and three other lawyers for sending a letter to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and the President of India making “scurrilous” allegations against Supreme Court judges.
This fresh contempt case has been placed before CJI Gogoi to constitute an appropriate bench to hear the matter.
The bench had earlier found Mr Nedumpara guilty of contempt of court and had issued notice to decide the quantum of punishment and this matter came up for hearing on Wednesday. Even as the issue was pending, Mr. Nedumpara sent letters to the CJI and the President seeking their intervention in the matter.
During the course of arguments of a case, Mr. Nedumpara dropped the name of senior advocate Fali Nariman, father of Justice Rohinton Nariman and this had irked Justice Nariman, who held the advocate guilty of contempt and for attempting to browbeat the court.