Court’s power of contempt cannot be taken away by passing laws, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said its power to punish a person for contempt cannot be taken away by enacting laws, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh held Rajiv Daiya, the chairperson of a non-governmental organisation named Suraz India Trust, guilty of contempt of court. The court held that he wasted the time of the court by filing multiple petitions with allegations against judges and court staff.

The Suraz India Trust had filed 64 public litigations, all of which were dismissed.

In 2017, the Supreme Court had fined the NGO Rs 25 lakh for filing frivolous petitions, according to Live Law. It had also barred the NGO from filing any case, including a public interest litigation, in any court.

However, the trust never paid the fine amount.

The organisation subsequently filed an application against the Supreme Court’s order. Responding to the application, the court said that Daiya was behaving as if “I will throw mud at all, whether it is the court, administrative staff or state government”.

“We refuse to back off,” the court said on Wednesday.

The court also directed that the sum of Rs 25 lakh be recovered from him in the form of arrears of land revenue. Daiya had told the court that he did not have the resources to…

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