Attorney General KK Venugopal on Friday declined the request of advocate Vineet Jindal to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal for his recent statement against Supreme Court judgments.
“Additionally, the statements relating to the critiques of certain judgments by the apex court would fall squarely within the purview of fair comment which is permissible under Sec 5 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 itself,” said the Attorney General pointing out that Sibal criticized the judgment on PMLA, which was later decided to be reviewed by the apex court.
The AG also cited the unprecedented press conference conducted by four Judges of the Supreme Court against the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in 2018. He said that the Judges also spoke on the problems in listing.
“Having gone though the entirety of Mr Sibal’s speech, I find his criticism of the Court and the judgments was so that the court may take note of the statements in the larger interests of the justice delivery system. It does not appear to me that the statements were intended to scandalize the court or affect the confidence of the conflict in the institution,” said the AG, rejecting consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Sibal.