New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dropped the contempt of court proceedings against former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju pertaining to certain blogs he wrote against the bench in the sensational Soumya murder case after he rendered an unconditional apology for his remarks.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Uday Lalit passed a brief order closing the contempt proceedings after senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, senior lawyer representing Justice Katju, submitted that he has filed an affidavit tendering unconditional apology and also deleted the blogs and Facebook posts.
Mr Dhavan also submitted that Justice Katju stated that he had always and will continue to respect the judiciary as an institution.
On November 11, 2016, in an unprecedented move the bench had issued a notice asking Justice Katju why contempt proceedings should not be initiated for criticising judges and not the judgment in the Soumya rape and murder case. However, the court early this week granted exemption from personal appearance in the court of Justice Katju.
On November 11, 2016 Justice Katju had come to the court on an invite from the bench to debate the several “fundamental flaws” and “grievous errors” he claimed in a blog and Facebook post allegedly scandalising the judiciary.
The court issued the notice after dismissing petitions filed by the Kerala government and Soumya’s mother seeking death penalty for the accused, Govindachamy, for causing the death of Soumya after raping her. Today, the court gave a quietus to the issue by dropping the proceedings.
