Madras High Court holds man guilty of contempt of court for abusing judges

The Madras High Court on Thursday convicted a former loco pilot for making scandalous and reckless allegations against a Supreme Court judge and three sitting judges of the High Court [XXX v. PU Venkatesan]..A division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice Sunder Mohan convicted one PU Venkatesan for criminal contempt of court and sentenced him to imprisonment of six months after noting that he showed no remorse and even raised his voice to abuse the two judges on the bench by calling them 'criminals'.The Court also noted that when it had asked the contemnor why the Court should not sentence him to imprisonment, the contemnor had challenged the Bench to pass any order against him."We are of the affirmed view that such a behaviour is not only contemptuous against us, but also to the entire justice delivery system. Since the contemnor has not shown any remorse, but rather was challenging us to pass any order of our choice, we hold that the letters of the contemnor dated 17.04.2024 and 22.04.2024 scandalizes, prejudices and has interfered with the due course of our judicial proceedings, apart from obstructing the administration of justice. Hence, we hold the contemnor guilty of having committed criminal contempt," the Court ordered..Contempt of court proceedings were first initiated against Venkatesan in 2020 following his Facebook post containing scandalous allegations against a few Supreme Court judges and some district judges.After Justice Ramesh and Justice Mohan started hearing the 2020 contempt case, Venkatesan wrote several letters to them making reckless allegations against them.When Venkatesan was summoned by the Court on April 22 this year for framing charges, he filed a petition asking permission to record the court proceedings on his mobile phone. He also made false and frivolous claims against Justice Ramesh and Justice Mohan in that application as well. Venkatesan also appended a letter dated April 17 to the petition.The letter written to the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had made disparaging statements about Supreme Court judge Justice MM Sundresh and Madras High Court judges Justice N Anand Venkatesh and Justice Ramesh and Justice Mohan. The letter also included photos of the four judges and the letter also equated the judges to 'rowdies' and 'dogs'.When the Bench asked the contemnor whether he stood by the allegations stated in the letter, he not only replied in the affirmative but also challenged the judges to take action against him. This prompted the court to initiate fresh criminal contempt proceedings against the contemnor..The Court noted that the contemnor was granted fair opportunity to address his stand in the case. "In spite of these opportunities, not only did he dared us to pass any order, but also addressed both of us as criminals in front of the entire community of lawyers and litigants, apart from the Court staff members," the Bench said. It accordingly found such behaviour to be contemptuous against the entire justice delivery system and, therefore found him guilty of criminal contempt under Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. .[Read Judgment]