HC convicts advocate for criminal contempt

Ranchi, July 04, 2007 -- The Jharkhand High Court convicted senior advocate KK Jha 'Kamal' for criminal contempt and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months.

The court, however, suspended the sentence for two months so that Jha could file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

A constitutional bench comprising five judges of the High Court headed by Chief Justice M Karpagavinayagam also referred the matter to the Bar Council of India for taking proper action against the advocate.

The bench, which pronounced its 49-page judgment, restrained Jha from making appearance before the courts under the High Court jurisdiction till he purged himself of the contempt. The order, however, would not restrict his chamber practice as an advocate.

In its judgment on Tuesday, the bench observed that Jha had passed derogatory remarks against the High Court Judge inside the courtroom and had no regret for his conduct. The bench observed, "Such conduct of the advocate is a threat to the justice delivery system". The bench also took notice of the fact that Jha, in the past two instances had faced contempt proceedings and was sentenced to undergo four and two months simple imprisonment respectively.

Earlier, the High Court had initiated contempt proceedings against Jha, who was charged for passing unwarranted statement inside the courtroom of Justice Permod Kohli on December 21, 2006 while pleading a case on behalf of Tanzeem E Sufia, a registered Giridih society. As per the High Court directive, Jha and his client had filed an unconditional apology before the court of Justice Permod Kohli.

Sufia had filed a case before the High Court against the Giridih additional district judge, Pankaj Kumar for allegedly passing a wrong judicial order in his official capacity.

On February 7, the High Court had also directed Jha and his client (Sufia) to tender an unconditional apology before the Giridih additional district judge Pankaj Kumar.

Instead of complying with the order, Jha refused to tender an "unconditional apology". He had also filed a fresh affidavit substantiating his allegations made against the Giridih additional district judge and sought from the court to drop the contempt proceedings initiated. The court, on Tuesday, discharged Ashok Kumar Gupta, Secretary to Sufia from the contempt case.