SAROJ GIRI Vs. VAYALAR RAVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ORDER :- Through this petition, filed on 26/08/1996, the petitioner prays to issue show cause notices to Respondents Nos. 1 to 15 Sri Vayalar Ravi, Sri John. F. Fernandes, Smt. Jayanti Natrajan, Sri S. S. Ahluwalia, Sri S. M. Krishna, Sri Ish Dutt Yadav, Sri Gurudas Das Gupta, Sri M. A. Baby, Mrs. Najma Heptulla, Sri Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Sri Santosh Mohan Dev, Sri Basudev Acharya, Sri Nirmal Kanti Chatterjee, Sri P. A. Sangama and Sri Surinder Kumar Singla for having criticised on the floor of the Parliament on July 25, 26 and 30, 1996 two of the Hon'ble Judges of this Court, who on 24-7-1996 had issued notices in her Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 19386 of 1996 questioning the validity of the appointment of Respondent No. 16 Sri H. D. Deve Gowda as the Prime Minister of the country and had advised him not to appear before this Court and who did not appear before this Court and punish them for committal of contempt of this Court under Article 215 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) Records of her writ petition discloses that it was heard on the question of its admission by a Division Bench comprising B. M. Lal, J. (who since 9/07/1997 is the Chief Justice of Patna High Court) and J. S. Sidhu, J. on 24-7-96. Sri U. N. Sharma, Senior Standing Counsel for the Union of India accepted notices on behalf of Respondents Nos. 2 and 3 to the writ petition (Union of India and Secretary to the Govt. of India) and undertook to file counter-affidavit within three weeks. Notices were issued to Respondents Nos. 1 and 4 to the writ petition (Respondent No. 16 herein and the Attorney General of India). The writ petition was directed to be listed on 13-8-1996. The interim prayer for restraining Respondent No. 16 from functioning as the Prime Minister was not granted.

(3.) This petition was placed before us on 6/01/1998 for our consideration.