Bombay High Court Refuses To Take Suo Motu Contempt Action Against CPI(M) For Statement Condemning Order On Gaza Protest Plea

The Bombay High Court on Monday said it would be preferable to ignore the Press Note issued by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), which condemned the High Court over the observations it made while denying the party's plea to stage a protest against Israel's war in Gaza.  

Notably, on July 25, a division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad had said that speaking up for Gaza or Palestine isn't "patriotism" and instead the CPI (M) must take up issues which affects the citizens of India.

"Our country has several issues to deal with...We don't want anything like this. I am sorry to say, you are all short-sighted...You are looking at Gaza and Palestine... Why don't you do something for our own country... Be patriots... Speaking for Gaza and Palestine is not patriotism... Speak up for the causes in our own country... Practice what you preach..." Justice Ghuge had remarked.

On Monday, Senior Advocate SM Gorwadkar urged the Court to take suo motu cognizance of the CPI(M)'s press note, saying that it was "contemptuous" to the Court.

Gorwadkar submitted, "The law is very clear, one cannot impute notice to the judges... This is a dangerous practice...You cannot impute any notice to the judges that would amount to undermining public faith in judiciary... This was followed even in Prashant Bhushan's case .. this is going to be criminal contempt... Notice be issued to Advocate General at least as this trend gives out a wrong message to the society at large."

The counsel even handed over copies of the press note to the judges, who perused the same and said they would prefer ignoring it.

"We would like to ignore this Mr Counsel...They have been saying that they have the right to speak and criticise and condemn our order... let them do... We would prefer to ignore this," Justice Ghuge orally said.

At this, Gorwadkar, responded, "That is your magnanimity Milords. But we will file a formal petition after issuing them a notice."

However, Justice Ghuge asked Gorwadkar to ignore the condemnation, clarifying that they only asked the party to take up causes that affect India.

"We have a limited role... That day we had a discussion with them... We told them look at our problems first... Don't we have problems... Alright they have condemned our order, our order isn't good, we will forget it...We can't say anything on this. Rather, we can say even you should ignore this," Justice Ghuge said.

Further, the bench, pointed out how nowadays, everything is put on social media, which then garners all kinds of reactions.

"We did our duty they are doing their duty. Let them do it," the judges said, while refusing to take suo motu cognizance of the said note of CPI (M).