VINCENT PANIRULANGARA Vs. V R KRISHNA IYER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Quite often a Judge comes across a case which has no precedent. But rarely has a case as unique as the one before us arisen in any court.

(2.) Sri. V. R. Krishna Iyer, formerly a Judge of this Court, later a Judge of the Supreme Court was one of the distinguished guests at the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Court held in October - November, 1981. At a symposium organised on that occasion on "Approach of Judicial Reforms", Sri. Krishna Iyer as a main speaker addressed the assembled audience. One of the Judges of this Court Sri. G. Viswanatha Iyer was then in the chair. Sri. Vincent Panikulangara, the petitioner is said to have attended that symposium and according to him the speech delivered by Sri. V. R. Krishna Iyer amounted to scandalisation of the authority of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and therefore Sri. V. R. Krishna Iyer is guilty of criminal contempt. He moved the Advocate General for sanction which the Advocate General gave.

(3.) The offending passages, according to the petitioner, are those stated in Para.8 of the petition. We will extract that paragraph here: