V M KANADE Vs. MADHAV GADKARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition filed by a practicing advocate of this Court invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act for taking action against respondent No. 1, hereinafter referred to as "the contemner". The contemner is the editor of a Marathi daily newspaper published from Bombay, called 'loksatta'. It is said to have the largest circulation among the Marathi newspapers. Respondent No. 2 is a limited company which owns the newspaper of which the contemner is the editor. The State of Maharashtra has been joined as respondent No. 3 in the petition.

(2.) APART from being the editor of the newspaper, the contemner also writes a column in the said newspaper under heading "chaupher". In the issue of Loksatta dated 7th of February 1986, the contemner wrote and published an article with the heading "who will stop the downfall of the High Court ?" In this article, there are statements which prima facie amounted to contempt of Court. The petitioner filed the present petition, bringing to the notice of this Court the article published on 7th of February 1986 and prayed that on the basis of the petition filed by him, cognizance may be taken by this Court suo motu and action under the Contempt of Courts Act may be taken against the contemner and respondent No. 2.

(3.) THIS Court, by its order dated 17th of February 1986, examined the article and gave the opinion that not all that was written in the article amounted to contempt of Court, but there were three passages, which were highly objectionable and a case existed for issuing notice to respondents Nos. 1 and 2 to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt of this Court and also for contempt of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal. A copy of the order alone with the rule was served upon both the respondents.