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During the hearing, Bhushan argued that the magistrate

Bhushan said that both TII and CMS had responded to the show cause notices but they had not appeared before the court.

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was not competent to initiate contempt proceedings against them as he only had the power to refer it to the high court.

He said the order initiating contempt proceeding was beyond the jurisdiction of judicial magistrate and "at best he could have made a reference to the high court".

Bhushan said that both TII and CMS had responded to the show cause notices but they had not appeared before the court.

He also argued that TII as well as CMS were not at all connected with the newspaper or its publisher and they had not even seen the news article on the basis of which the lower court had initiated action against them.

The apex court, in its order, noted that assertions in the report were made against the lower judiciary of Jammu and Kashmir and "it was clearly open to any member of the lower judiciary" to take note and subsequent action as per the law.

"We may clarify that the term 'of a subordinate court' used in section 15(2) of the 1997 Act could well contemplate a situation where simultaneously contempt is committed for more than one count and in such an eventuality, any such court can take action and make reference to the high court," the bench said.

The judicial magistrate had passed order under provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1997 and under various provisions of the Ranbir Penal Code, including 499 and 500 (criminal defamation), against TII, CMS and others.

The lower court had thereafter in July 2006 issued notices asking them to appear through authorised representatives to answer the material questions.

 

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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