The Madras High Court on Thursday found a former loco pilot guilty of making scandalous allegations against a Supreme Court judge and three judges of the High Court and sentenced him to six months of simple imprisonment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan held PU. Venkatesan of Mogappair in Chennai guilty of criminal contempt and imposed the maximum punishment because he showed no remorse, raised his voice in court and called the two judges in the Bench as “criminals.”
A suo motu contempt proceeding was initiated against him first in 2020 following a Facebook post containing scandalous allegations against a few Supreme Court judges and some district judges. He started writing letters to Justices Ramesh and Mohan ever since they began hearing the 2020 petition from April this year.
When he was summoned to the court on April 22, 2024 for framing charges, the contemnor filed a sub application seeking permission to record the court proceedings in his mobile phone and once again made false and frivolous allegations against the two judges in the Division Bench in that petition too.
Along with the sub application, he annexed a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of India on April 17, 2024 making unsavoury remarks against Justice M.M. Sundresh of the Supreme Court, Justice Ramesh, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh and Justice Mohan of the High Court. The letter also contained photographs of the four judges.
When the judges in the Division Bench asked the contemnor as to whether he stood by those reckless allegations made in the letter, he not only answered in the affirmative but also challenged the judges to take action against him. He raised his voice and questioned the procedures adopted by the court.
His conduct forced the Bench to initiate one more suo motu contempt proceding against him for the charge of interfering with the administration of justice. Subsequently, when the second contempt petition was heard, the contemnor called the two judges in the Bench as “criminals” and asked them to pass any order.
Recording the fact that they had given a fair opportunity to the contemnor to explain his stand, the Bench wrote: “Inspite of these opportunities, not only did he dare us to pass any order but also addressed both of us as criminals in front of the entire community of lawyers and litigants apart from the court staff members.”
The two judges went on to state: “We are of the affirmed view that such a behaviour is not only contemptuous against us, but also to the entire justice delivery system. The contemnor has not shown any remorse, rather he was challenging us to pass any order of our choice.”
After asking Additional Public Prosecutor E. Raj Thilak to make sure that the Inspector of the High Court police station was present in court, the judges directed the Inspector to arrest the contemnor forthwith and hand him over to the Superintendent of the Central Prison at Puzhal for undergoing the sentence.
