The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider former Vigilance Director Jacob Thomas’ plea challenging Kerala High Court’s initiation of contempt proceedings against him.
A Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, posted the plea filed by the suspended IPS officer for hearing on April 2, the same day he has been directed to appear by the High Court before it.
The Kerala High Court had on March 20, initiated contempt proceedings against Thomas for making allegations against two High Court judges in a letter to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), and asked him to appear before it on April 2 to respond to a contempt charge.
Mr. Thomas in his petition before the apex court clarified that his complaint to the CVC was not intended to cast any allegations and aspersions against Hon’ble Judges but was “clearly against the prosecutors and the investigators who have misled the judicial system in arriving at a certain conclusion in high profile corruption cases involving politicians and ministers of the state.”
The Kerala High Court had initiated the contempt proceedings on a petition filed by lawyer B.H. Mansoor after it found that he made allegations which constituted criminal contempt as defined by the Contempt of Courts Act.
According to the petition by Mr. Mansoor before the High Court, portions of the complaint were leaked and made public by Mr. Thomas intentionally and dishonestly to scandalise and lower the authority of the court.
However, Mr. Thomas has claimed that he acted as a whistleblower in the case and sought protection from the contempt proceedings initiated against him.
