New Delhi: The Supreme Court issued contempt notice to former SC judge Markandey Katju for one of his Facebook posts on the Soumya rape and murder case amid dramatic scenes in the courtroom on Friday.
“Contempt notice issued for Katju's blog in which he allegedly used intemperate language against judges. Statement in Katju's blog is a serious assault on judges, not on judgment. Hence, the contempt notice," the court said.
After a war of words, Justice Ranjan Gogoi called in security guards and asked Katju to be escorted out after he was issued the contempt notice.
As he was asked to be escorted out of the courtroom, Justice Katju protested saying that “it was not a proper way to treat a former Supreme Court judge" and reiterated that he was “called here by the apex court and it was not his personal choice."
Several lawyers too protested against the move to have Katju escorted out.
Justice Katju was summoned to the court after he wrote a Facebook post criticizing the commuting of sentencing to Govindachamy from death to life in the Soumya rape and murder case. A Supreme Court Bench had converted the Facebook post into a review petition and took suo motu judicial notice of his blog post.
Justice Katju had remarked that the Bench had “grievously erred in law by not holding the convict Govindachamy guilty of murder."
The top court on Friday also rejected the review petition of the Kerala government and victim Soumya's mother challenging Govindachamy’s acquittal from the murder charge.
(With PTI inputs)
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