Attorney General (AG) K.K. Venugopal has declined to give consent to a lawyer to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against senior advocate Kapil Sibal.
Mr. Sibal had criticised a judgment of the Supreme Court dismissing Zakia Jafri's allegations of a "larger conspiracy" behind the 2002 riots and a verdict upholding amendments made to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which gave virtually unbridled powers to the Enforcement Directorate. He was speaking at the People's Tribunal organised in the capital on August 6.
Mr. Venugopal, in his letter to advocate Vineet Jindal, said Mr. Sibal's statements pertaining to "loss of faith in the Supreme Court are not contemptuous on the face of it". The AG, whose consent is mandatory to initiate contempt proceedings in the apex court, explained that the import of Mr. Sibal's statements merely indicate that the orders of the court are not implemented on the ground. They did not cast any blame or aspersion upon the court.
The AG said the statements of Mr. Sibal about the judgments would "fall squarely within the purview of 'fair comment'."
"Having gone through the entirety of Mr. Sibal's speech, I find that his criticism of the court and the judgments was so that the court may take note of the statements in the larger interests of the justice delivery system," Mr. Venugopal wrote.
