SC drops contempt cases against Justice Katju

Legal Correspondent 

New Delhi, January 6 

The Supreme Court on Friday dropped two contempt of court cases against its retired judge Markandey Katju after he offered an unconditional apology for criticising apex court judges. 

A Bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and UU Lalit accepted the apology and closed the “instant proceedings” against Katju. 

Appearing for Justice Katju, senior advocate Rajiv Dhavan said the former judge had also stated in the affidavit that he had great respect for the judiciary and judicial proceedings. Justice Katju had also removed the two blog posts containing the allegedly offensive remarks, the Bench was informed. 

On November 11, 2016, a three-member Bench headed by Justice Gogoi had issued a contempt of court notice to Justice Katju for posting the blog posts. On September 15, the Bench had set aside the death sentence awarded to a man convicted for raping a 23-year-old in a train in February 2011 while the victim was on her way home. The victim had died two days later. 

Justice Katju immediately found fault with the verdict in a blog post, stating that the Supreme Court should have upheld the death penalty, instead of giving the convict the benefit of doubt by relying on the “hearsay” versions of two passengers who had gathered the details from another passenger who was not traceable subsequently. Subsequently, he wrote on two more blogs scaling up his attack, which prompted the Supreme Court to ask him why action should not be taken against him for committing contempt of court.