Court issues contempt notice to VK Singh

NEW DELHI: Terming former Army chief General VK Singh’s remarks against the Supreme Court as “scandalising,” the top court on Tuesday issued a contempt notice against him for undermining judiciary’s authority.

A special bench of justices RM Lodha and HL Gokhale took suo motu cognisance of a report published in a section of the media that quoted Singh attacking the SC for not deciding his age row on the basis of matriculation certificate.

Directing Singh to file his response by October 23, the bench said: “The same amounts to scandalising the court and prima facie VK Singh’s statement tend to scandalise the judiciary and also to lower the authority of the court.”

“This court, therefore, takes cognisance of the criminal contempt and direct that notice be issued to him as to why contempt proceedings be not initiated against him,” the court said.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir assembly speaker Mubarak Gul on Tuesday assured the legislators of a discussion on whether former army chief VK Singh should be summoned to the house for his statement on payments to the valley’s politicians.