Criminal contempt proceedings will be started against Ratna Singh, the legal affairs chief of the Cockroach Janata Party over her comments against a Chief Judicial Magistrate of Saket Courts. The approval from the Delhi government’s Additional Standing Counsel came after a lawyer sought contempt action.
Without any supporting factual foundation, they could create an impression that judicial decisions were influenced by extraneous considerations.
Singh’s posts attract action under the Contempt of Courts Act, the law official said. The Additional Standing Counsel said there is a difference between questioning the correctness of a judicial decision and attributing extraneous influences or improper motives to the judge. Referring to Singh’s statements that the judge was “serving the master” and “following order from master”, the counsel said these remarks went beyond criticism of the judicial order. He said the expressions prima facie suggested that the judicial officer was acting under instructions from an external authority rather than independently exercising judicial discretion. Such imputations, the counsel said, struck at the independence and impartiality of the judicial process.
About Ratna Singh’s statements against the SEM who heard the detention case involving Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, Standing Counsel Ashutosh Ranka has said those statements were directed against the Delhi Police and the SEM and could not be treated as criminal contempt.
