TCN Special Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: Chief Minister Narendra Modi is facing two separate contempt of court proceedings for writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of appointment of Lokayukta in the state. The hearing in both the petitions is scheduled on September 7 in the Gujarat high court.
One of the petitions for seeking criminal proceedings was filed by advocate Rajesh Mankad on behalf of NGO Jan Sangharsh Manch, while another has been filed by advocate Anand Yagnik on behalf of Bhikhabhai Jethwa, who had filed a PIL seeking appointment of Lokayukta in the state. Jethwa is the father of slain RTI activist Amit Jethwa.
Mankad, in his petition, said that writing to PM on the issue of appointment of Lokayukta amounted to interference in judicial proceedings because the matter was already pending for adjudication in the court.
Mankad pointed out that while the state government had itself challenged the appointment of the Lokayukta in the high court and the matter was scheduled for hearing on September 9 and another petition by Jethwa asking the state government for expediting the appointment of Lokayukta was also pending before the court. Hence, Modi’s writing to PM on the issue amounted to contempt of court and invited criminal action against him.
Referring to Modi’s letter to PM, Mankad argued that Modi’s attack on “the impartiality of the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in recommending the name of Justice(retd) R A Mehta as Lokayukta amounts to scandalising and lowering the image and authority of his office”.
Modi, who made contents of his letter public, also accused the governor of acting in collusion with the Congress party.
Governor’s name dropped from the list of respondents:
Meanwhile, the state government in its amended petition dropped the name of state governor Kamla Beniwal from the list of respondents. The government has challenged the governor’s decision to appoint Justice (retd) R A Mehta as Lokayukta of the state.
However, the state government made principal secretary of the Chief Justice, registrar general of the high court and Justice (retd) R A Mehta as respondents. The petition was filed on August 25 soon after Governor announced the appointment of Justice (retd) Mehta on august 25 morning. But in its first petition, it made governor as the respondent but it was not allowed by the high court. A division bench of Justice Akil Kureshi and Sonia Gokani had said that making governor as respondent was unconstitutional.