3 jailed for making scandalous allegations against judges

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sentenced three people, held guilty of contempt of court for making "scurrilous and scandalous allegations" against two sitting judges of the apex court, to 3-month jail observing that it was a "concerted effort to virtually hold the judiciary to ransom".

The top court had on April 27 held advocate Vijay Kurle, state president of Maharashtra and Goa of the Indian Bar Association, advocate Nileshojha, President of the Indian Bar Association and Rashid Khan Pathan, national secretary of NGO Human Rights Security Council, guilty of contempt of court for making scandalous allegations against the judges.

A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose heard on May 4, through video-conferencing, the issue of quantum of sentence in the matter and said "there is not an iota of remorse or any semblance of apology on behalf of the contemnors".

"In view of the scurrilous and scandalous allegations levelled against the judges of this court and no remorse being shown by any of the contemnors we are of the considered view that they cannot be let off

leniently," the bench said in its May 4 order, while noting that none of advocates for the three contemnors were willing to argue on the issue of sentence.

"We, therefore, sentence all the three contemnors namely Vijay Kurle, Nileshojha and Rashid Khan Pathan, to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of 3 months each with a fine of Rs 2,000," the apex court said.