NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday held the Editor, the Resident Editor, the Publisher and the cartoonist of English tabloid Mid-Day guilty in a contempt of court case for carrying a scandalous report and a cartoon of former Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal aimed at lowering the dignity of the Supreme Court in the eyes of the common man.
A Division Bench comprising Justice R.S. Sodhi and Justice B.N. Chaturvedi fixed September 21 for hearing the convicts on the quantum of sentence.
The Court had initiated the contempt proceedings in May following submission of a copy of May 18 edition of the paper by senior advocate R.K. Anand accusing it of scandalising Mr. Justice Sabharwal by publishing the article and the cartoon.
Allegation
The report alleged that the sons of Mr. Justice Sabharwal had benefited from the orders passed by the Supreme Court in connection with the sealing of commercial establishments in residential areas in the capital and that they (sons of the former Chief Justice) were operating their business from the official residence of their father. Mr. Justice Sabharwal was heading the Bench hearing the sealing matter.
In their defence, the contemnors through their lawyers Shanti Bhushan along with Prashant Bhushan submitted that whatever had been published was the truth which was a permissible defence in a contempt of court case.
They submitted that the condemnation of Mr. Justice Sabharwal through the publications was at a time when he had ceased to be in office and, therefore, could not be termed as denigrating the authority of the Supreme Court.
They further submitted that the propriety demanded that Mr. Justice Sabharwal ought to have recused himself from the Bench that passed the orders in the sealing case.
