[Prashant Bhushan Case] The three Judge Bench Judgment has vitiated the conviction of Vijay Kurle and others in the case of Re: Vijay kurle in SMCP no. 02 of 2019.

 

[Prashant Bhushan Case] The three Judge Bench Judgment has vitiated the conviction of Vijay Kurle and others in the case of Re: Vijay kurle in SMCP no. 02 of 2019.

Supreme Court observed that the procedure laid down in P. N. Duda’s case has to be followed while taking cognizance. Which overruled the judgment in Re: Vijay Kurle passed by smaller bench of Justice(Retd.) Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose.

The conviction of Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackrey was set aside for not following the procedure laid down in  P.N.Duda’s  case.

The opposite Sr. Counsel Mr. Siddharth Luthra, who misled the court by giving the overruled and per incuriam judgments, is now likely to face action under contempt and his designation as 'Senior Counsel' could also be taken away by the Supreme Court.

Adv. Prashant Bhushan is convicted by observing that the the procedure laid down in P. N. Duda’s case has been followed in his case.

 

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New Delhi : Today, the three judge Bench of Supreme Court headed by Justice Arun Mishra has, overruled the findings of two Judge Bench in Re: Vijay Kurle and ors. The Court observed;

“very recently, a Bench of this Court has considered identical submissions in the case of Re: Vijay Kurle & Ors. 2020 SCC Online SC 407 it will be apposite to refer to the following paragraphs of the judgment wherein the earlier law has been discussed in extenso:

18. From the perusal of various judgments of this Court, including those of the Constitution Benches, it could be seen, that the source of power of this Court for proceeding for an action of contempt is under Article 129. It has further been held, that power of this Court to initiate contempt is not in any manner limited by the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. It has been held, that the Court is vested with the constitutional powers to deal with the contempt and Section 15 is not the source of the power to issue notice for contempt.  It only provides the procedure in which such contempt is to be initiated. It has been held, that insofar as suo motu petitions are concerned, the Court can very well initiate the proceedings suo motu on the basis of information received by it. The only requirement is that the procedure as prescribed in the judgment of P.N. Duda (supra) has to be followed. In the present case, the same has undoubtedly been followed.

 

Now, in view of  the Larger Bench’s  judgment, the view taken by smaller Bench of Justice Deepak Gupta in judgment dated 27.04.2020 is overruled.

Effect of not following procedure laid down in P.N. Duda’s case:

In case of Bal Thackrey,  the conviction of Shivsena Supremo Shri Bal Thackrey was set aside by the Full Bench of the Supreme Court for not following the procedure laid down in P.N. Duda’s case. The case is reported as Bal Thackrey Vs. Harish Pimpalkhute (2005) 1 SCC 254.

 

Hence the conviction of Adv. Vijay Kurle, Shri Rashid Khan Pathan, Adv. Nilesh Ojha by not following the procedure laid down in P. N. Duda's case is now vitiated.

In this case around 148 advocates from Supreme Court have shown their appearance on behalf of  Vijay Kurle and  Rashid Khan Pathan.

Respondent No. 3 Adv. Nilesh Ojha argued his case in person.

The arguing Counsel for Resp. No.1 Mr. Vijay Kurle was Adv.  Partho Sarkar. The  Resp. No. 2  was  represented by Adv. Ghanshyam Upadhyay. Both the Counsel were assisted by other Counsels viz.  Shri Ishwarlal Agarwal, Shri Anand Jondhale, Mrs. Dipali Ojha, Shri Tanveer Nizam,  Shri Abhilash Panicker, Shri Jayram Yadav, Ms.Niki Pocker, Shri Abhishek Mishra, Shri Shivam Mehra, Shri Mangesh Dongre, Shri Harsh Singhal, Shri Vijay Divedi, Shri R.R.Tripathi, Shri Akhilesh Pande,Shri Joy Sarkar, Shri. Pratik Jain, Mrs. Mansi Jain, Ms. Deepika Jaiswal Ms. Poonam Rajbhar.

The opposite Sr. Counsel Mr. Siddharth Luthra, who misled the court by giving the overruled and per incuriam judgments, is now likely to face action under contempt and his designation as 'Senior Counsel' could also be taken away by the Supreme Court.

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