Attorney General K K Venugopal has refused sanction to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi over his remarks on the judiciary during a televised event.
In his petition, activist Saket Gokhale referred to remarks made by the Rajya Sabha MP at an event organized by the India Today group on Feb 12 and said the remarks tend to scandalize the judiciary. “You want a 5 trillion dollar economy but you have a ramshackle judiciary,” the former CJI had said, according to Gokhale’s petition. “If you were to go to court, you would only be washing your dirty linen in court. You won’t get a verdict. I have no hesitation in saying it,” the former CJI had said, adding that “only corporations willing to take chances with their millions of rupees go to Supreme Court”.
In a letter to Gokhale, the AG said that the former CJI “has initially made some very strong statements about the judiciary and the Supreme Court of India” and the “statements apparently reflect his deep frustration with the ills that undoubtedly beset the justice delivery system”. However, Venugopal said he watched the “entirety of the interview” and “it is obvious that all that has been said was for the good of the institution and will not in any manner scandalise the court or lower its authority in the eyes of the public”.