Justice Markandey Katju’s Apology, Closes Contempt Proceedings

NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court has accepted Justice Markandey Katju’s apology for contemptuous remarks in his blog. The apex court has closed the contempt proceedings against him. Justice Katju was a Supreme Court judge between 2006 and 2011.
For the first time in the country’s judicial history, the apex court had issued suo motu contempt notice to its former judge on November 11. Katju, who is known for his vocal opinion on social media, had written blogs which had comments on the judges.
“Prima facie, the statements made seem to be an attack on the Judges and not on the judgment. We, therefore, issue notice of contempt to show cause why contempt proceedings should not be drawn up against Justice Markandey Katju and he be appropriately dealt with,” stated the court order.
Justice Katju had been critical of the September 15 judgment that had set aside the death penalty for the convict in Kerala’s Soumya rape-murder case. Criticising the judgment in his Facebook post, Katju had said it needed to be reviewed in open court since it was “regrettable that the court has not read Section 300 carefully.” Section 300 of the IPC defines murder.