In a relief to Kerala’s Culture Minister KC Joseph of the Congress and the party-led UDF Government, the High Court on Friday dropped the contempt of court proceedings that had been initiated against him over his remarks against one of the judges of the court by accepting his unconditional apology.
Closing a petition filed by CPI(M) legislator V Sivankutty seeking contempt proceedings against Joseph, a division bench comprising Justices Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Sunil Thomas expressed the hope that he would stay away from making derogatory remarks against judges in the future.
The bench observed that the apology tendered by Joseph and the affidavit he filed in this regard were acceptable. The content of the affidavit Minister filed made it clear that he had admitted his mistake and that he had made the apology sincerely, the court said, adding that it was closing the contempt proceedings with the hope that he would not repeat such mistakes.
The High Court had initiated the proceedings for criminal contempt of court against Joseph, a staunch loyalist of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, over some extremely derogatory remarks he had made in July last against Justice Alexander Thomas in the name of some observations he had made against the Government while considering a case.
In a comment posted on his Facebook page immediately after the judge made the remark, Joseph had linked Justice Thomas to jackal that pretended to be king after falling in a paint bucket. In this post, Joseph had accused the judge of being publicity-crazy and said, “One wouldn’t be surprised about the (judge’s) comment if the history of the person is examined.”
When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, Joseph, who had appeared in person before the court as per its direction, produced a copy of his Facebook page in which he had made the apology on March 4. The court also took note of a new affidavit he filed in which he referred to the apology he had offered through a Facebook post.
Joseph also told the court that newspapers across the State had carried reports on his apology. However, the court remarked that personalities like people’s representatives and ministers should be extremely careful when they were making public statements. It also observed that such personalities should be aware of the influence the new media like Facebook had.
When the case was taken up earlier on March 1, the same division bench had told the Minister to tender his apology publicly by observing that the regret he had expressed over his remark against Justice Thomas was inadequate.
Joseph, facing the charge of being in the habit of attacking the Judiciary whenever adverse verdicts and comments came from it against his party or the Government, had in July last severely criticized Justice Alexander Thomas for his criticisms against the alleged lack of interest of the Advocate General’s office in the cases of public interest.