HC not subordinate to SC, says Justice Sehrawat

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has emphasised that it is not subordinate to the Supreme Court and there is no scope for the Supreme Court to issue sundry directions to a high court regarding specific proceedings pending before it. Highlighting its independent status, Justice Rajbir Sehrawat made it clear that the relationship between a high court and the Supreme Court was not akin to that between a high court and a Civil Judge (Junior Division) within its jurisdiction.

Apex court takes suo motu cognisance

• The Supreme Court on Tuesday took suo motu cognisance of comments made by Justice Rajbir Sehrawat against it for staying contempt proceedings in a case pending before his Bench
• The matter is listed for hearing on Wednesday before a five-judge Bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hrishikesh Roy
• In his July 17 order, Justice Sehrawat had raised questions over the SC’s order staying contempt proceedings in a case and had even sounded a note of caution for the top court, saying it should “be more specific in causing legal consequences through its order.”

The assertion came in a case where the apex court had stayed contempt proceedings before the high court. “Probably more

caution on the part of the Supreme Court would have been more appropriate,”

he declared.

The judge added that such an order from a psychological perspective appeared to be driven by two primary factors: first, a reluctance to take responsibility for the likely consequences under the guise that a stay on contempt proceedings did adversely affect anybody; and second “a tendency to presume the Supreme Court to be more ‘supreme’ than it actually is and to presume a high court to be lesser ‘high’ than it constitutionally is”.

Justice Sehrawat said the order passed by the Supreme Court had given rise to a problem of constitutional conformity vis-à-vis the court compliance, besides increasing the pendency before the high court by one more case. “One never knows how many more cases in execution and contempt petition may have been kept pending throughout the country because of such orders,” he asserted.

Referring to the legal provisions, he said the high court’s power under Article 215 was articulated in the same language as Article 129, which granted the Supreme Court authority to punish for contempt of its own orders.

The power to initiate and continue proceedings for alleged contempt with regard to an order passed by it was exclusively with the high court in terms of Article 215 of the Constitution and Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, he said.

The Supreme Court had no role in this aspect, except in an appeal against a high court Division Bench order convicting a contemner. According to the provisions of the Act, an appeal against an order passed by a Single Bench did not go directly to the Supreme Court. Instead, it was heard by the high court Division Bench. Its powers were defined, both in terms of the appeal’s stage and the type of order it could issue. “It is highly doubtful if the Supreme Court has any such power to stay operation of Article 215 of the Constitution of India and the Contempt of Courts Act, per se,” he added.