TODAY, THE SUPREME COURT REBUKED NISHIKANT DUBEY, a Member of Parliament (‘MP’) from the Bharatiya Janata Party (‘BJP’), for his "irresponsible" utterances accusing Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’) Sanjiv Khanna of being responsible for "civil war" in India.
A Division Bench of CJI Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar observed that Dubey's comments were highly irresponsible and reflected a penchant for attracting attention by casting aspersions on the Supreme Court and its judges.
The Bench, however, refused to initiate contempt proceedings against Dubey even though it found his utterances tended to scandalise and lower the authority of the Supreme Court.
"Courts are not as fragile as flowers to wither and wilt under such ludicrous statements", the Bench noted in its order.
The Bench was hearing a petition filed by an advocate Vishal Tiwari seeking to initiate suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against Dubey, for a direction to register a case against him, and to issue an advisory to all Chief Secretaries to curb hate and provocative speeches by political parties and their leaders relating to the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
The Bench said that normally it would not have heard the matter, but since it was not entertaining it, and the Waqf matter was being heard by them, they would dispose of the petition with some observations.
