Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Wednesday sentenced a man to simple imprisonment for three days and imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him for making "scurrilous" allegations "intended to undermine public confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the court".
A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Jobin Sebastian held Ernakulam-native P K Suresh Kumar guilty of criminal contempt of court for his various social media posts alleging "ideological bias" against judges of the court and "undermining their honesty and judicial competence".
"The posts, taken as a whole, are clearly intended to undermine public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of this court. The insinuation that judgments were rendered at the behest of politically aligned advocates, for the personal advancement of judges, attributes nothing short of judicial dishonesty and improper motives on the part of the judges of this court.
"Such content is likely to deter litigants from trusting the judicial process and will most certainly impair judges in the discharge of their constitutional duties. While fair and temperate criticism is protected, criticism based on distortion, falsehood, and aimed at vilifying the institution cannot be countenanced," the bench said.
The court noted that the "malicious" posts were published even after Kumar had tendered an unconditional apology in an earlier contempt proceedings.
"On the basis of the materials on record, principles laid down by the Apex Court as well as this Court and the respondent’s conduct, we hold that he has committed criminal contempt by scandalising this Court with mala fide intent. He is, therefore, found guilty under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971," it said.
The court said that if Kumar does not pay the fine, he will have to undergo simple imprisonment for a further period of one month.
The bench also declined his plea for suspension of the sentence for one day, saying that in view of his antecedents and the overall facts and circumstances of the case, it was not inclined to grant him that relief.
"The Registrar General, High Court of Kerala, is directed to make out a warrant to ensure detention of the respondent/accused P K Suresh Kumar in terms of the sentence awarded in this case," the bench said.
During the proceedings in the contempt case, initiated by the High Court on its own based on Kumar's posts, he -- in an affidavit -- initially admitted to authoring the posts and justified each and every statement made by him, the court noted.
"He offers explanations as to the circumstances that allegedly compelled him to publish the impugned posts, despite having tendered an unconditional apology in the earlier contempt proceedings. The counter is replete with irrelevant and extraneous content..," it said.
However, later, he took a totally different stand and denied authorship of the posts altogether, the court said.
"We have already held that this prevaricating stand, by admitting authorship of the posts in pleadings and disowning it during evidence, reflects an absence of candour and a shifting, unreliable defence. It is thus clear that the respondent neither stands by his assertions nor did he make any conscious attempt to justify his stand," the bench said.
It further said that the posts taken as a whole were clearly intended to "undermine public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality" of the High Court.
Earlier, suo motu contempt proceedings had been initiated against Kumar for making derogatory and scandalous statements against a judge of the High Court through an online news portal.
He was discharged from those proceedings after he tendered an unconditional apology.
