AG grants consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Yati Narsinghanand over comments on top court

Attorney General K K Venugopal on Friday granted consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Yati Narsinghanand, over his recent derogatory remarks against the Supreme Court.

Narsinghanand, head priest of Dasna temple at Ghaziabad, has been under judicial custody after his arrest in Haridwar Dharm Sansad case related to alleged hate speech.

In response to a letter by a Mumbai-based activist, Shachi Nelli seeking contempt proceeding against Narsinghanand, Venugopal said, “I have gone through your letter and watched the video of the statements made by Yati Narsinghanand. I find that the statement made by Yati Narsinghanand, that 'those who believed in this system, in these politicians, in the Supreme Court, and in the army will all die the death of a dog', is a direct attempt to lower the authority of the Supreme Court in the minds of the general public”.

He added that this would certainly amount to contempt of the Supreme Court.

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“I accordingly grant consent to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt of the Supreme Court of India in terms of section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 read with rule 3A of the Rules 3 (a) of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court of India, 1975,” the AG said.

A consent by the Attorney General or the Solicitor General is a statutory requirement under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and under the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court of India, 1975 for initiation of such proceedings in the top court.

Following an interview by Narsinghanand, which went viral on social media platform Twitter, Nelli, in the letter to the AG, said the comments made by him tried to undermine the majesty of the institution and the authority vested in the Supreme Court.

Narsinghanand had made those statements in response to questions in connection with the court proceedings in the Haridwar hate speech cases.

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