The Madras High Court on Thursday told the Tamil Nadu Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram not to process a plea seeking his permission to initiate contempt proceedings against S Gurumurthy, columnist and editor of a Tamil magazine.
Advocate S Doraisamy of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam had filed an application seeking consent of the Advocate General to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Gurumurthy, alleging that he had made certain adverse remarks against the judiciary at a function in January, 2021.
Justice Anita Sumanth granted the temporary relief to Gurumurthy till February 24, when his writ petition came up for hearing today.
The judge directed Doraisamy to file his counter on the maintainability of Gurumurthy’s writ petition and the legal issues raised by him, by February 24. She requested Shanmugasundaram not to proceed further in the contempt proceedings, till then.
Originally, Doraisamy had approached the then A-G Vijay Narayan seeking his permission to initiate contempt proceedings against Gurumurthy.
According to Doraisamy, at a meeting organised to commemorate the anniversary of the Thuglak magazine on January 14 last year, Gurumurthy had made a statement about the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court, which amounted to criminal contempt as defined under Sec. 2(c) of the Contempt of Court Act.
However, by an order dated March 31 last year, Vijay Narayan had refused permission.
After the change in the government, Doraisamy moved the present A-G with the same plea and the latter took it on his file on September 27, 2021.
Aggrieved, Gurumurthy preferred the present writ petition to quash the September, 2021 order of the sitting A-G. There is no power to recall or review any final order passed in the earlier ‘consent’ order under the Contempt of Court Act. The reason given by the A-G to recall the March 31 order is neither legal nor logical, he contended.