Senior 'Midday' journalists held guilty of contempt of court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday held the editor, publisher, resident editor and cartoonist of a daily tabloid guilty of contempt of court for writing and publishing a series of articles against former Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal.

"There is sufficient material to hold them guilty of contempt of court. The Supreme Court judgments have laid down a 'Lakshman rekha' which the publication has crossed," a Division Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice B N Chatruvedi said.

The Bench directed M K Tayal, Editor of 'Midday', S K Akhtar (Publisher), Vitusha Oberoi (Resident Editor) and Irfan (Cartoonist) to be personally present before it on September 21 when it will pronounce the quantum of sentence.

The court had on August 20 reserved its judgment in the contempt case against the tabloid for a news report alleging that Sabharwal's sons had ties with mall developers who benefited from the sealing drive during his tenure in office.

Taking suo-motu cognizance of the articles published in the city tabloid, the High Court on May 18 had issued notices to its editor, reporter and publisher.

It, later, issued a notice to the cartoonist of the tabloid for making "caricature" of Sabharwal.