ANIL KUMAR GUPTA Vs. K SUBA RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This information which has erroneuously been numbered by the office of this Court as Criminal Original No. 51 of 1973 has been furnished by Anil Kumar Gupta of New Delhi as he considered it his duty to draw the attention of this Court to the act of respondent No. 1 (Mr. K. Subba Rao, Ex-Chief Justice of India, Bangalore) and respondent No. 2 (Mr. Kuldip Nayar, The Editor, The Statesman, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi) that respondent No. 1 wrote and got published an article and respondent No. 2 published the aforesaid article in the issue of the Statesman dated May 14, 1973 styled "The Supersession of Judges and that the aforesaid acts of the respondents amount to contempt of Court and praying that this Court should exercise its powers under Article 215 of the Constitution and/ or Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 to issue notices to the respondents and upon hearing them to hold them guilty of gross contempt of this Court and to punish them. Concededly the informant. Anil Kumar Gupta, has no locus standi to file a petition under section 15 of the said Act as that can be done only by the Advocate-General or any other person, with the consent in writing of the Advocate-General. In asmuch as this information was styled as a petition by the office it was placed for admission before this Bench and we heard the counsel for the informant. For the aforesaid reasons, what I have to consider is whether in the circumstances of this case as disclosed in the petition and the attending circumstances, this Court should of its own motion issue a notice to the aforesaid respondents. Before this question is examined, I would narrate shortly the facts which have led up to this petition.

(2.) On April 26, 1973, the then Chief Justice of India demitted his office and in his place the present Chief Justice of India (Mr. Justice A. N. Ray) was appointed. Mr. Justice A. N. Ray was fourth in terms of seniority of Supreme Court Judges and the judges who were senior to him were Justice J. M. Shelat, Justice K. S. Hegde and Justice A. N. Grover in the order mentioned. The appointment of the present Chief Justice of India created a public controversy of a wide magnitude inasmuch as it was said that the aforesaid three senior judges had been superseded in disregard of an established convention of 25 years standing and even otherwise the appointment was unconstitutional. It is alleged in the additional affidavit annexed to the information that the Times of India, a daily newspaper, of April 27, 1973 contained a news item that the appointment of Mr. Justice A. N. Ray as Chief Justice of India may be challenged. On May 10, 1973, the Statesman of which respondent No. 2 is the editor published the filing of a petition in this Court by J. M. Gupta (Civil Writ No. 5B7 of 1973) challenging the appointment of the present Chief Justice of India and this news appeared in various national dailies. Then in its issue dated May 14, 1973 the Statesman published the aforesaid article by respondent No. I criticising the appointment.

(3.) At the time of hearing, counsel for the informant frankly stated that he was not pressing for a notice to respondent No. 1, Mr. K. Subba Rao, as he was not aware whether the offending article had been written before or after the filing of the aforesaid writ petition and, therefore, he would press for a notice only against respondent No. 2, Kuldip Nayar, who published the same reserving his right to move for a notice to respondent No. 1 on ascertaining facts by disclosure or otherwise as to when the offending article was written.