Former judge Sujata Kohli moves Supreme Court challenging closure of contempt case against Rajiv Khosla

The Supreme Court on Friday sought former Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) President Rajiv Khosla's response to former district judge Sujata Kohli's plea challenging his discharge in a criminal contempt of court case. [Sujata Kohli v Rajiv Khosla].Khosla was convicted in 2021 for assaulting Kohli in 1994 when she was a lawyer at the Tis Hazari Court.Subsequently, Khosla had allegedly disrupted the court proceedings on November 27, 2021 when the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) was about to pronounce the sentence against him. In 2022, Kohli moved the High Court for initiation of criminal contempt against Khosla for disrupting the trial court proceedings.The Delhi High Court in February this year discharged Khosla in the contempt of court case, leading to the present appeal before the Supreme Court..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra today said it would examine the video footage of the incident where Khosla and his supporters allegedly had resorted to sloganeering against judges."Issue notice ... we make it returnable in three weeks," the Court said..Senior Advocate Indira Jaising and advocate Paras Nath Singh appeared for the former judge and submitted that they were not seeking enhancement of compensation."We are concerned that when the matter was listed for judgment, the convicted person entered with a mob of lawyers and prevented the judge from delivering the order. Victim impact report was not available and it was to be adjourned, but the mob was such that head district judge had to come and say that behave yourself. This is on video," Jaising saidJaising also lamented that such occurrences were frequently happening to prevent a judge from performing their duties.The CJI asked for the video to be filed as part of the records."See how the mob was collected. Judicial officers can be seen pacifying the crowd. The High Court did not see the footage in open court," Jaising submitted..In the present case, Kohli had alleged in her plea before the High Court that Khosla and his supporters had “held the court to ransom” when the CMM was to pronounce the sentence against Khosla.During that hearing, lawyers including Khosla allegedly shouted slogans, stood on chairs and called the magistrate 'biased' and said that 95 percent of judges are corrupt, the High Court was told.While dismissing Kohli's plea, the High Court had said that she was not able to produce any material which may compel the Court to form an opinion that Khosla has committed any criminal contempt.“As already noticed above, the present contempt proceedings have not been initiated on the basis of any reference. Undoubtedly, the complainant, having obtained the consent in writing in terms of Section 15 of Contempt of Courts Act, is not debarred from filing the petition of the present kind but fact remains that there is nothing before us which may indicate that contemnor had scandalized or lowered the authority of any Court or interfered or tried to interfere with the due course of any judicial proceeding,” the High Court observed.