New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the March 2019 judgment of its coordination bench that held a lawyer guilty of contempt, saying the petition was not maintainable.
SC dismisses petition challenging its 2019 verdict convicting lawyer of contempt”Under what provision of law can we entertain a writ petition challenging the order of the coordination bench,” a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Jayamalya Bagchi asked advocate Mathews J Nedumpara, who filed the petition and appeared in person.
The Bench sought to know under what law the writ petition was maintainable.
Nedumpara said, it is the responsibility of the court to correct the mistake.
“We have to dismiss it only because it is not maintainable,” the bench said, adding, “Once it is not maintainable, it is a bar for us to go on the merits.”
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The bench then asked Nedumpara, who was convicted of contempt of the apex court in March 2019, whether he had applied for a review of the verdict.
“I have filed a review petition but the record is missing from this court,” the lawyer said.
To this the CJI said, “Don’t make the scandalous allegation that the record is lost. Have you made any complaint to the CJI that the record has been lost?”
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While dismissing the petition, the bench said that the petitioner has not been able to explain how the writ petition is maintainable.
In March 2019, the apex court sentenced Nedumpara to three months in prison for contempt of court but suspended the sentence after taking note of the unconditional apology offered by him.
The top court, which barred the lawyer from practicing for a year, said the jail sentence would be suspended only if Nedumpara complied with an undertaking that he would never try to beat up judges of the apex court and the Bombay High Court.
On March 12, 2019, the apex court found him guilty of contempt.
The court has issued a notice on the punishment to be given to the lawyer for contempt of court.
The issue of contempt came up when the bench was hearing a petition filed by an organization that represented Nedumpara during the hearing.
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