Why Supreme Court held Gujarat judge, cop guilty of contempt of court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held a Gujarat Judicial Magistrate and police inspector guilty of contempt of court for wrongful arrest and remand of an accused person in violation of the top court's order [Tusharbhai Rajnikantbhai Shah v. State of Gujarat]..A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta asked the contemnors, cop RY Raval and Surat Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Deepaben Sanjaykumar Thakar, to be present before the Bench on September 2 to decide the quantum of sentence. The verdict came on a plea filed by an accused person seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the State government and police officials involved for his wrongful arrest and remand despite the Supreme Court having granted anticipatory bail to him.He alleged that the police in Surat on remanding him had physically assaulted him and sought to extort ₹1.6 crore, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had granted him anticipatory bail in December 2023..The Supreme Court stated that its order of December 2023 granting interim bail had clearly left no room for doubts that the protection was absolute, until modified or altered."The language of the order was clear and unambiguous, hence, none of the contemnors-respondents could have entertained any doubt in their minds nor was there any scope for the interpretation that the petitioner could be remanded to police custody during the currency of the interim order dated 8th December, 2023," the Court noted. If the Investigating Officer (now contemnor) had any genuine and bonafide need to seek police custody, he should have moved the top court first, the Bench said."The proper course of action would have been to move this Court for seeking appropriate directions rather than moving the Magistrate by way of the remand application, which was tainted, malicious and a contemptuous act on the face of the record."As regards the Judicial Magistrate, the Court said that criminal jurisprudence requires that courts apply judicial mind before passing an order of remand. Further, since the criminal complaint showed that the dispute was of a civil nature, the Magistrate should not have not 'toed the line' of the police and ordered the remand of the accused mechanically."Courts are not expected to act as messengers of the investigating agencies and the remand applications should not be allowed in a routine manner."Pertinently, the Bench underscored that the basis of remand cannot be to obtain a forced confession under the garb of cooperation of the accused."We are of the firm opinion that non-cooperation by the accused is one matter and the accused refusing to confess to the crime is another. There would be no obligation upon the accused that on being interrogated, he must confess to the crime and only thereafter, would the Investigating Officer be satisfied that the accused has cooperated with the investigation. As a matter of fact, any confession made by the accused before a police officer is inadmissible in evidence and cannot even form a part of the record," the Court said. Therefore, it found the cop and the judge guilty of contempt of court..The Gujarat High Court had on October 5 refused to allow anticipatory bail to the accused after the Magistrate's remand order, leading to the instant appeal before the top court along with a contempt of court application.The Supreme Court had issued notice to the Gujarat government and concerned Surat Police officials in the matter on December 12.The petitioner was then granted bail subject to a bond of ₹25,000 with at least one surety of like amount.The same was made absolute today.While hearing the matter in January, the Bench had pulled up the concerned Surat magistrate and the Gujarat Police.The State had then informed the Court that the officials in question had been suspended..Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor Generals SV Raju and Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Gujarat government.Senior Advocate DN Ray and Advocate K Parameshwari appeared for the contemnors.Senior Advocate Iqbal H Syed and advocate Abid Ali Beeran appeared for the accused, whose plea before the top court was filed through advocate Mohammed Aslam and drawn by advocate Vishrut Bhandari.Senior Advocate R Basant appeared for the Gujarat High Court..[Read Judgment]