Supreme Court rejects plea for recall of order in contempt case

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea by a man, convicted of criminal contempt and sentenced to three months imprisonment, against an order by the top court's registry for not considering an application for recall of the judgement.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose said an application for recall of an order by which an earlier application for recall of the judgment was dismissed, was not maintainable.

"In a country governed by the rule of law, the finality of the judgment is absolutely imperative and great sanctity is attached to the finality of the judgment. Permitting the parties to reopen the concluded judgements of this court by filing repeated interlocutory applications is clearly an abuse of the process of law and would have a far-reaching adverse impact on the administration of justice," the bench said, citing a 2011 ruling.

The bench termed the application filed by convict National Secretary, Human Rights Security Council, Rashid Khan Pathan, for recall of the order of May 4, 2020, was an abuse of process of the court. The court dismissed the appeal with an exemplary cost of Rs 25,000.

The court warned the appellant saying if he continued to file such repetitive applications in this litigation which are not maintainable, he will be visited with deterrent actions, such as initiation of criminal contempt proceedings or a direction to the registry that no further applications in this litigation will be received.

On August 7, the registry declined to receive an application by Pathan for recall of May 4 order whereby he and two others were sentenced to three months jail for contempt. The registry found that a similar plea was already dismissed.

On Thursday, the court said the only remedy available for the convicts to file a review petition against the judgements passed on April 27 and May 4.

Maharashtra and Goa president Indian Bar Association, Vijay Kurle, National President, Indian Bar Association Nilesh Ojha and National Secretary, Human Rights Security Council Pathan were held guilty of contempt on April 27 for "scurrilous and scandalous allegations" made by them against the top court's judges.

The court subsequently sentenced them to three months simple imprisonment, saying "there is not an iota of remorse or any semblance of apology on behalf of them".

However, in view the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown conditions, the bench had directed that the sentence would come into force after 16 weeks.