The Delhi High Court has awarded six months sentence to a man on grounds of criminal contempt of court for filing a petition seeking death penalty of a sitting judge of the High Court.
The order was passed on Tuesday by the Division Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Shalinder Kaur on a petition moved by one Naresh Sharma.
The High Court held the petitioner guilty of criminal contempt on the grounds that he used ‘derogatory’ language for the judge who had dismissed his petition and had even called the judge a ‘thief’.
The Division Bench, while noting that the contemnor had no repentance for his conduct and actions, held him guilty of the guilty of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and sentenced him to six months simple imprisonment with fine of Rs 2,000.
The High Court ruled that in default of payment of fine, the contemnor should undergo simple imprisonment of seven days.
The Division Bench took in view the material placed on record, the submissions made by the Contemnor and the opposite counsel, along with the fact that the contemnor had refused to tender unconditional apology for his conduct.
It directed Head Constable Vinod (Naib Court), to take the contemnor in custody and hand him over to the Tihar Jail in Delhi on Tuesday itself.
Sharma had filed a plea alleging corruption committed by the Indian government since independence and demanded a probe into the same. His petition was rejected by a single-judge on July 27, 2023.
Sharma then filed appeals against the judgment. They came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula on August 31.
The Court examined the three appeals, which contained several “unsubstantiated and whimsical allegations of criminal acts” against the single-judge and the Supreme Court of India. The Court, therefore, issued show cause notice for criminal contempt of court to Sharma and listed the same before the roster bench.
As the case came up for hearing before the bench headed by Justice Kait, the Court observed that it was “highly shocked” to note the averments.
(Case title: Court on its own motion vs Naresh Sharma)