Supreme Court
New Delhi: Taking seriously the disobedience of the Supreme Court order by Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Rajbir Sahrawat, the Supreme Court will constitute a bench today and hear the matter. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and four senior judges will form a bench to decide the future course of action in relation to the High Court judge’s order of July 17. Justice Sahrawat had remarked in his order: “There is a tendency to consider the Supreme Court more ‘supreme’ than it actually is and the High Court less ‘higher’ than it constitutionally is.”
A bench of Chief Justice Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy will consider the order of Justice Sahrawat, who had reluctantly put on hold the contempt proceedings initiated by him due to the Supreme Court’s adjournment.
The Supreme Court’s direction is to make the High Court subordinate to the Supreme Court: Justice Sahrawat
“But this (to adjourn a case owing to an order of the Supreme Court) may not always be possible for the High Court to do so in view of the special facts and circumstances involved in a particular case or because of the involvement of certain statutory provisions. That would be an unfortunate situation which would be better avoided,” Justice Sahrawat had said.
Justice Sahrawat had held that contempt proceedings initiated by a single judge bench of the High Court should be appealed to the High Court Bench only and the Supreme Court will have a role in it only if the contemnor, whose conviction has been upheld by the division bench, files an appeal in the Supreme Court. It is a basic fact that the Supreme Court has wide jurisdiction over any subject matter including the High Court, whether the matter is pending in any court or not.
Justice Sahrawat said, “The Supreme Court may have the power to allow a special appeal by a ‘party’ to the contempt proceedings before the High Court against certain kinds of orders in the contempt case in certain circumstances, however, in the present case there are neither such circumstances, nor any such special appeal has been filed by the respondents against any such order in the contempt case.” Therefore, in the given circumstances, the order of the Supreme Court appears to be in the nature of a stay on the powers of the High Court under Article 215 of the Constitution of India and the Contempt of Courts Act. Justice Sahrawat further said, “However, it is highly doubtful whether the Supreme Court has any power to stay the operation of Article 215 of the Constitution of India and the Contempt of Courts Act. Perhaps more caution on the part of the Supreme Court would have been more appropriate.
Justice Sahrawat blamed the Supreme Court for attempting to control the roster of the High Court and issue guidelines for the appointment of senior advocates and said that this direction is to make the High Court subservient to the Supreme Court. He said that the Supreme Court did not realize the damage it has caused by staying the contempt proceedings initiated by it. Defending the initiation of contempt proceedings related to non-filling of posts of judicial officers, the High Court judge asked, “Who is responsible for this plight of judicial officers working in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court or the Supreme Court?”
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