The Supreme Court has sought an explanation from registry officials for listing petition filed by N Ram, Prashant Bhushan and Arun Shourie before justice DY Chandrachud instead of a bench which is already hearing similar matter.
According to a report by News18, the petition which is jointly filed by noted journalist N Ram, former Union minister Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan was already being heard by Justice Arun Mishra-led composition. Sources told the leading news channel that a serious view has been taken of the "wrongful" listing of the matter on August 10 before a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and KM Joseph.
Earlier on August 1, Former union minister Arun Shourie, veteran journalist N Ram and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan have moved the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of a legal provision dealing with criminal contempt for "scandalizing the court", saying it was violative of freedom of speech and right to equality.
The petition, which may come up for hearing next week, challenged the validity of Section 2(1)(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 as being unconstitutional and incompatible to the basic feature of the Constitution and is vague and manifestly "arbitrary". The provision defines what constituted criminal contempt and said that if by way of publication of words, the dignity of the courts is lowered and if they scandalize the courts then the offence of contempt of court is deemed to have been committed.
(Inputs from Agencies)