A petition has been filed before the Attorney General of India to initiate contempt of court proceedings against actress Ms. Swara Bhaskar over her statement against Apex Court while addressing a conference at Mumbai in February 2020.
The petition alleges that she scandalizes the court by saying that “the court is not sure if they believe in the constitution” in the conference “Artist against communalism”.
The petition has been filed by Adv. Anuj Saxena, Mahek Maheshwari & Prakash Sharma on behalf of Usha Shetty before Attorney General of India seeking sanction under section 15 of contempt of court Act 1971 read with rule 3 of Contempt proceedings of Supreme court 1975, against the actor Ms. Swara Bhaskar.
According to the petition, Bhaskar's statement in the conference was, “We are living in a country where the SC states in a judgment that the demolition of Babri Masjid was unlawful and in the same judgment reward the same people who brought down the mosque”.
The petition alleged objectionable statement made by Bhaskar is reproduced in the petition as,
“We are in a situation where are court is not sure whether they believe in the constitution or not.....what then do we do when it seems to me that as everyone has said that the path is clear to us and it has been shown to us by you all whoever all of you have been part of the protest by students, by women and by the citizen protesters it is to resist.......
“We are living in a country where the SC of our country states in a judgment that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was unlawful and then in the same judgment reward the same people who brought down the mosque”.
The petition states that “the alleged contemnor statement intends to incite the feeling of no-confidence amongst the public with respect to the proceedings of the Hon'ble Court and the integrity of the Hon’ble Judges of the Apex Court”. It also alleged that her statement was not only “cheap stunt of publicity” but also a deliberate attempt to turn masses to revolt against the Supreme Court.
Contempt of Court-
The basic idea of the contempt of court is to punish those who do not respect the order of the court, in the Indian Context, Contempt is also used to punish speech that lowers the dignity of the Court and interferes with the administration of the court. The contempt of Court is one of the most controversial elements in the Indian legal context. It refers to the offense of showing behavior of disrespect or disobedience towards the court of law.
