Judges call security to escort Katju out
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court handed an unprecedented contempt notice to one of its former judges — justice Markandey Katju — on Friday, leading to an ugly confrontation with him inside the courtroom.
Katju was summoned by the SC to explain his criticism of the order that rejected the death penalty to the convict in the 2011 rape and murder of a Kerala woman, Soumya.
The judges handed Katju an underlined portion of his comments and asked for an explanation on what they said “seems to be an assault on the judges and not on the judgment”, along with the contempt notice. “I am not scared of all this. Don’t give me threat Mr Gogoi. Supreme Court judges should not behave like this,” Katju replied. “Don’t provoke us anymore,” justice Gogoi warned, to which Katju reacted: “You are provoking me by this type of threat. You requested me to come here and assist you”.
“Is there somebody to escort Justice Katju out of the court”, justice Gogoi said, prompting outrage among lawyers inside the packed courtroom who started shouting, “This is wrong. This is wrong…”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 GHAZIABAD: Thirteen workers of an illegal garment factory died in a fire that broke out early on Friday morning in a residential colony in Ghaziabad.
The two-storey building was a workshop for artificial leather products and eyewitnesses said the only cramped entrances to it were engulfed in flames, trapping the workers. Ambulances and fire engines could not reach the building on time as they had trouble navigating the narrow lanes. FULL REPORT ON P4