STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS. ETC. ETC. v. CH. BHAJAN LAL AND ANOTHER ETC. ETC.

Citation: [1992] SUPP. 3 S.C.R. 735; 1992 INSC 357

Court: Supreme Court of India

Bench: S. RATNAVEL PANDIAN , K. JAYACHANDRA REDDY

Judgment date: 1992-12-18

Case summary

1992 INSC 357. Supreme Court of India judgment dated 1992-12-18. STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS. ETC. ETC. v. CH. BHAJAN LAL AND ANOTHER ETC. ETC. Read the...

Judgment text

STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS. ETC. ETC. A v. CH. BHAJAN LAL AND ANOTHER ETC. ETC. DECEMBER 18, 1992 (S. RATNAVEL PANDIAN AND K. JAYACHANDRA REDDY, JJ. ] B Contempt of Courts Act, 1971: Section 3-Contempt of Court-Suo moto notice-Issuance of-Statement of facts appearing in Press report-f'roof of-Necessity for. The petitioner/applicant, a DIG of Police of the appellant-State, c filed a contempt petition before this Court requesting to initiate suo moto proceeding for criminal contempt allegedly committed by the respondent/contemner, and to issue notice for the . same and punish him adequately.

He also filed two Interlocutory applications praying for awarding adequate punishment to the respondent for committing ag- D gravated contempt of the Authority of this Court by seeking to punish the petitioner (applicllnt) for assisting the Court through the advocates appearing for the State and setting aside the order of suspension of the petitioner/applicant and also for faxing an early date of hearing of the contempt application and the application for direction filed by the E applicant earlier. The applicant stated that the respondent in order to create a bias in his favour and prejudice that he was innocent of the charge of amassing wealth by illegal and corrupt means, had issued public statements so that this Court did not take the serious charges of corruption against him F seriously, and issued a statement touching upon the proceedings pending before this Court, which amounted to gross criminal contempt of the Court.

On behalf of the State, it was contended that the petition was not maintainable for the reasons : (1) the petitioner was neither the investigat· G ing officer in the case registered against the respondent nor he was a party to that criminal proceedings; (2) that the statement attributed to the respondent could not be said to have interfered with the proceedings, then pending before this Court, since on that day the First Information Report had already been quashed by the High Court and there was no stay of the H 735 736 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1992] SUPP. 3 S. C. R. A order. of the High Court passed by this Court; (3) that in any case , there was no material on record apart from the newspaper report to show . that this statement was made by the respon~ent; (4) that the petitioner was not competent to file this contempt petition because be was not a party to the proceedings.

B On behalf of the respondent the very maintainability of the petition by the applicant was questioned on the ground that the press statement without proof of the contents found therein was inadmissible in law. It was contended that the statemeni of fact contained in a newspaper report was merely here say and, therefore inadmissible in evidence in the absence of C proof by evidence aliunde, that there was no proof that the alleged con. : temptuous statement was in fact made. by the Chief Minister, as it ap- peared in the Press note, that it was only for the applicant to satisfy the court by adducing acceptable evidence that the statemeut offact contained in the report was true and that it called for issued of suo moto notice. D Dismissing the Contempt Petition and the Interlocutory Applica- tions, this Coart. HELD: 1. 1. No evidence has been let in proof of the statement of facts contained in the newspaper report.

The absence of any denial by the E respondent will not absolve the applicant from discharging his obligation of proving the statement of facts as appeared in the Press report. There- fore, in the absence of required legal proof, the Court will not be justified in issuing a suo moto notice for contempt of court. [748-B,C] 1. 2. When the alleged statement was made, the entire proceedings F inclusive of investigation culminating from the registration of the FIR against the respondent had been quashed by the High Court and no stay has been granted by this Court and the petitioner was not a party to the proceedings. [748-D] 1. 3. A perusal of the news item does not spell out any reference to G the case of corruption or its proceeding pending before this Court. In the alleged contemptuous statement only the view of the reporteris mentioned as if the respondent had perhaps been provoked about the proceedings of the case before the Supreme Court.

In fact, the Civil Appeal itself has been disposed of subsequently and one of the Interlocutory applications is filed H in the main Civil Appeal after its disposal, even though Contempt Petition STATE OF HARYANA v. CH. BHAJAN LAL [l'ANDIAN, . T. ] 737 has been tiled before the disposal of the case. There is, therefore, no A reason much less compelling reasons to issue . suo moto notice to the respondent for contempt of court. (748-E,F] In Re. P. C. Sen, (1969) 2 SCR 649; Samant N. Balakrishna Etc. v. George Fernandez and Ors. Etc. , (1969] 3 SCR 603 and Laxmi Raj Shetty and Anr. v. State of Tamil Nadu, (1988) 3 SCR 706 at 735, referred to. B CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Contempt Petition No. 7 of 1989. WITH I. A Nos. 1 & 2 In Civil Appeal No. 5412 of 1990. From the Judgment and Order dated 8. 9. 1988 of the Punjab and Haryana High in Civil Writ Petition No. 9172 of 1987. c Kapil Sibal, K. Parasaran, R. K. Garg, Ms. Indu Malhotra, Ms. Indu D Goswami, Mahabir Singh and S.

Srinivasan for the appearing parties. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by S. RATNA VEL P ANDIAN, J. Contempt Petition No. 7 of 1989 is filed by Shri S. A. Khan, DIG of Police requesting the Court to initiate suo moto E proceeding for criminal contempt allegedly committed by the respon- dent/contemner, Ch. Bhajan Lal and to issue notice for the same and punish him adequately. I. A. No. 1/91 in C. A. No. 5412/90 was filed by the applicant Sbri S. A. Khan for the following prayers: "(1) award adequate punishment to the respondent Shri Bhajan Lal for committing aggravated contempt of the Authority of this Hon'ble Court by seeking to punish the petitioner (applicant) for assisting the Court through the advocates appearing for the State of Haryana; (2) set aside the order of suspension of the applicant herein; and also F G (3) pass such other and further order or orders as this H A B c D 738 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 3 S. C. R. Hon'ble Court may deem. fit and proper. " I. A.

No. 2/91 in C. A. No. 5412/90 was filed by the applicant Shri S. A. Khan seeking the following prayers: "(a) set aside the suspension order dated 5. 7. 91 and fix an early date of hearing of the contempt application No. 2743 of 1989 and the application for direction filed by the applicant earlier. {b) pass such other order or orders as are deemed fit and proper in the circumstances of the case for which act the petitioner most respectfully prays this Hon'ble Court. " IA Nos. 1 and 2 were filed on 12. 8. 1991 and 21. 8. 1991 respectively. It may be noted that the Contempt Petition No. 7/89 was filed in September 1989 in S. L. P. (C) No. 14014/88. Even before giving the brief facts which have given rise to the filing of this Contempt Petition, we would like to mention that a confusion is created in the contempt proceeding, by wrongly mentioning it as ··contempt Petition No. 2743/89' instead of IA. No. 1/91 in all the follow up affiliated proceedings. 'No.

2743/89' is the number assigned to the Civil Miscel- E laneous Petition filed in SLP (C) No. 14014/88 which was subsequently registered as Civil Appeal No. 5412/90. The said CMP No. 2743/89 was fded by the State of Haryana and others praying for the deletion of the name of Ch. Devi Lal, Chief Minister of Haryana from the array of parties and dispensation of the fding of a formal affidavit in support of that F application. It was not at all a Contempt Petition. It transpires from the · original records that I. A. No. 1/91 dated 12. 8. 91 has been filed in Civil Appeal No. 5412/90 for awarding adequate punishment to the respondent for committing aggravated contempt of court. In the affidavit filed accom- panying the petition also it is mentioned as I. A. No. 1/91 in Civil Appeal No. 5412/90, but in the main petition containing the averments, it has been G wrongly pientioned as Contempt Petition No. 2743/89 in Civil Appeal No. 5412/90.

The mentioning of the number '2743/89' to the Contempt Petition is patently wrong. Unfortunately, this mistake has been carried out throughout the subsequent proceedings, namely, in the counter affidavit, the reply affidavit, the rejoinder and so on. Even at the threshold when we H wanted to have a clarification as to how two Contempt Petitions, namely, L ' SfATE OF HARYANA v. CH. BHAJAN LAL (PANDIAN, J. ) 739 Contempt Petition 'No. 2743/89' (sic) I. A. No. 1/89 and Contempt Petition A No. 7/89 have happened to be filed, no satisfactory explanation has been offered and the puzzle remained unanswered. It may be pointed out that I. A. Nos. 1/91 and 2/91 were filed in Civil Appeal No. 5412/90 praying, (1) for initiating contempt proceedings against Ch. Bhajan Lal; and (2) for setting aside the suspension order dated 5. 7. 1991 passed as against Shri B S. A. Khan respectively. But in both the applications, the facts and the prayers are inextricably mixed up.

Therefore, we have culled out the facts with some difficulty by separating them and then have narrated the aver- ments with reference to each proceeding. On 12. 11. 1987 one Dharam Pal presented a complaint before Ch. C Devi Lal, who was then the Chief Minister of Haryana making serious allegations against Ch. Bhajan Lal who was then the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Govt. of India alleging that Ch. Bhajan Lal had accumulated huge properties worth crores of rupees disproportionate to his known sources of income in the names of his family members, relations D and persons close to him by misusing his power and position and also undervaluing the market price and that all those transactions are benarni in character. On the basis of the above allegations, a case was registered in Sadar Police Station under Sections 161 and 165 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947. Even when the investigation was in the threshold, Ch.

Bhajan Lal filed a Writ E Petition No. 9172/87 under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seeking issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the first information report and also a writ of prohibition restraining the State of Haryana and the investigating officials from further proceeding with the investigation. The High Court of Punjab and Haryana before which the Writ Petition was F filed granted exparte stay which was thereafter made absolute. After hearing the parties to the Writ Petition, the High Court concluded that the allegations made in the FIR did not constitute a cognizable offence for commencing the lawful investigation and granted the relief as prayed for and mulcted the fifth respondent therein, namely, Dharam Pal, the com- plainant with the costs of the writ petition. On being aggrieved by the G judgment of the High Court, the State of Haryana and others preferred SLP (Civil) No. 14014/88 which was registered as Civil Appeal No. 5412/90 on grant of leave.

This. Court by its judgment dated 21st Nov~ber, 1990 to which both of us were parties set aside the:". judgment of the High Court and allowed the appeal in the following terms: H 740 A B c D SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992) SUPP. 3 S. C. R. "We set aside the judgment of the High Court quashing the First Information Report as not being legally and factually sustainable in law for the reasons aforementioned, but, however, we quash the commencement as well as the entire investigation, if any, so far done for the reasons given by us in the instant judgment on the ground that the third appel- lant (SHO) is not clothed with valid legal authority to take up the investigation and proceed with the same within the meaning of Section 5A(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act as indicated in this judgment. Further we set aside the order of the High Court awarding costs with a direction that the said costs is payable to the first respondent (Ch. Bhaj~ Lal) by the second respondent (Dharam Pal).

In the result; the appeal is disposed of accordingly but at the same time giving liberty to the State Government to direct an investigation afresh, if it so desires, through ·a competent Police Officer empowered with valid legal authority in strict compliance with Section 5A(1) of the Act as indicated supra. No order as to costs. " While this Civil Appeal was pending before this Court, Ch. Bhajan E Lal is stated to have made a statement touching the proceeding which was then pending in SLP (Civil) No. i4014/88. The substance of the statement was reported in the Indian Express dated 30th July, 1989, the copy of which is annexed as Annexure ''A" with this Contempt Petition. The relevant portion of the Press statement which according to the applicant, Shri Khan, F G H amounts to contempt of court is reproduced hereunder: "He alleged that the Deputy Inspector General of Police here, who considered himself a big officer, was implicating his people in false cases.

He vowed to make him rob-his nose on the ground, where the meeting was being held, for forgive- ness. Mr. Bhajan Lal had perhaps been provoked by the reports that the said officer was distributing copies of two magazines, both sister publications in Hindi and English; which carried stories about the cases of corruption going on against him in the Supreme Court. " According to the applicant, he in his official capacity, was supervising STATE OF HARYANA v. CH. BHAJAN LAL [PANDIAN, J. ) 741 the investigation of the case registered against Ch. Bhajan Lal and was A attending this Court (Supreme Court) assisting the Advocate General of Haryana whenever the SLP was fixed for hearing and that his active participation in the proceedings has caused intolerable annoyance to Ch. Bhajan Lal. The applicant further states that Ch.

Bhajan Lal "in order to create a bias in his favour, and prejudice the public that he was innocent B of the charge of amassing wealth by illegal and corrupt means, has issued public statements so that this Hon'ble Court does not take the. serious charges of corruption against him seriously. " The above statement accord- ing to the applicant amounts to gross criminal contempt of the court. In addition to the above, the following averments are made in the Contempt Petition: C "That the respondent Ch. Bhajan Lal who wants by hook . or crook to thwart the proceedings of this court to ensure no investigation takes places, is adopting the coercive and threatening measures, in interfering with the proceedings of this Court in the above said case". D (Vide para 7 of the Contempt Petition) "The matter is sub-judice before this Hon'ble Court.

The applicant is not in a position and will not be able to under- take the investigation according to law if the gross con- tempt committed by respondent Shri Bhajan Lal goes unpunished. It will reduce the law enforcement agencies to a laughing stock. Ch. Bhajan Lal is obviously actuated. with an intention to intimidate those who dare to speak the truth exposing his abuse of power to amass wealth in the background of his admittedly humble beginning in life. " (Vide para 9 of the Contempt Petition) "That the act of intimidation and blackmail unbecoming of member of the Central Government Ch. Bhajan Lal has committed the gross criminal contempt of this Hon'ble Court with an intention to interfere in the Administration of Justice. " (Vide para 10 of the Contempt Petition) E F G H A B 742 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 3 S. C. R. It is pertinent to note that leave was granted in SLP (Civil) No. 14014/88 only on 21. 11. 1990. In other words, on the.

date when the alleged contemptuous statement was made on 30th July 1989 leave had not been granted, but the matter was heard at th~ stage of SLP itself. A reading of the statement which we have reproduced above only the underlined poition can be said to be contemptuous, if at all it is stated so, and the rest of it is the view of the reporter of that news item. One Shri Gian Singh, Under Secretary, Home, Haryana has filed his counter affidavit on behalf of the State in the Contempt Petition stating that the said application is not maintainable "since Shri Khan has no locus C standi, ·inasmuch as he was not a party to the present proceedings either in his personal or official capacity. " It is further stated that "Shri Khan has exhibited his personal animosity against the first Respondent by holding a Press Conference on 20. 9. 1991". A photo copy of the Press statement is annexed to this counter. D E F G H Ch.

Bhajan Lal though has not filed any separate affidavit in the contempt application No. 7 of 1989, he has filed an affidavit in 'Contempt Petition No. 2743/89', (sic IA. No. 1 of 1991). Ch. Bhajan Lal has replied in his -counter affidavit, meeting the allegations, made in I. A. No. 1/91 i. e. the application for initiating the contempt proceedings as hereunder: "Having been in political life for a long period of time, 1 am aware of my responsibilities and would never make any public utterances with the intent of either scandalising the Court, or of lowering the authority of the Court, or of interfering, either directly or indirectly m the due course of any judicial proceedings, or interfering with, either directly or indirectly, or obstructing, in any manner, the administration of justice.

" (Vide para 1 in his affidavit sworn on 6th December, 1991) "The statements attributed to me in the Application for Contempt are based on newspaper reports which ar~ mere 'hearsay' and cannot in law be relied upon for the purposes of initiating such proceedings. Even if it be assumed that the statements attributed to me •· STATE OF HARYANA v. CH. BHATAN LAL [PANDIAN, J. ] were so made, it was never with the intent of committing any criminal contempt by either scandalising the Court, or tending to interfere with the course of judicial proceedings, or interfering or tending to interfere with, or obstructing, or tending to 9bstruct, the administration of justice. " (Vide para 3) "I am filing this Affida'l ter made ~everal comments on controversial matters which were pending for adjudication before the Court. The High Court issued a Rule H 746 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 3 S. C. R.

A requiring the Chief Minister to show cause why he should not be com- mitted for contempt of Court and after an inquiry, the High Court held that the speech amounted to contempt of Court. An appeal was filed before this Court challenging the order of the High Court submitting inter-alia that the speech contained no direct reference to any pending B c D E F proceedings and the Chief Minister was under a duty to make the speech to instruct the public about the true state of affairs. But this Court while rejecting the submission made the following observations: "The law relating to contempt of Court is well settled. Any act done or writing published which is calculated to bring a Court or a Judge into contempt, or to lower his authority, or to interfere with the due course of justice or the lawful process of the Court, is a contempt of Court: R. v. Gray, 1900 2 Q. B. D. 36 at p. 40.

Contempt by speech or writing may be by scandalising the Court itself, or by abusing parties to actions, or by prejudicing mankind in favour of or against a party before the cause is heard. It is incumbent upon courts of justice to preserve their proceedings from being misrepresented, for prejudicing the mind of the people against persons concerned as parties in causes before the cause is finally heard has pernicious consequen- ces. Speech or writings misrepresenting the proceedings of the Court or prejudicing the public for or against a party or involving reflections on parties to a proceeding amount to contempt. To make a speech tending to influence the result of a pending trial, whether civil or criminal is a grave contempt. Comments on pending proceedings, if emanat- ing from the parties or their iawyers, are generally a more ser~ous contempt then those coming from independent sources. " Relying on the above observation, Mr. Garg urged that Ch. Bhajan G .

Lal by his Press statement has not only threatened Shri Khan for implicat- ing his people in criminal cases, but also has interfered with the due course of justice or the lawful process of the court when the proceeding relating to the case of corruption registered against him was pending before this Court. According to Mr. Garg this Press statement clearly amounts to gross H criminal contempt of court and therefore it is a proper case in which the STATE OF HARYANA v. CH. BHAJAN LAL [PANDIAN, J. ) 747 Court should exercise itS authority by issuing suo moto notice to Ch. Bhajan A Lal and punish him adequately. The bone of contention of Mr. Parasaran is that the statement of fact contained in a newspaper report is merely hearsay and therefore inadmis- sible in evidence in the absence of any proof by evidence aliunde. Accord- ing to him, in the present case there is no proof that the alleged B contemptuous statement was in fact made by the Chief Minister as it appears in the Press note.

According to him, it is only for the applicant to satisfy the court by adducing acceptable evidence that the statement of fact contained in the report is true and that it calls for issue of suo moto notice. According to him, the decision in In Re: P. C. Sen cannot be availed of by C the applicant because in that case, the . evidence was led before the Court to prove that the offending speech was in fact broadcast by the Chief Minister on the All India Radio, Calcutta Station. In support of his submission that the news item cannot be the basis for initiating contempt proceeding against the alleged maker of the statement, he relied upon a D decision of this Court in Samant N. Balakrishna Etc. v. George Fernandez and Ors. Etc. , [1969] 3 SCR 603, wherein it has been held that news items when published are garbled versions and cannot be regarded as proof of what actually happened or was said without other acceptable evidence through proper witnesses.

He also drew our attention to the dictum laid down by this Court in Laxmi Raj Shetty and Anr. v. State of Tamil Nadu, E [1988] 3 SCR 706 at 735, with regard to the admissibility of the news item appearing in a Press report. The dictum reads thus: "We cannot take judicial notice of the facts stated in a new item being in the nature of hearsay secondary evidence, unless proved by evidence aliunde. A report in a newspaper is only hearsay evidence. A newspaper is not one of the documents referred to in S. 78(2) of the Evidence Act, 1872 by which an allegation of fact can be proved. The presump- tion of genuineness attached under S. 81 of the Evidence Act to a newspaper report cannot be treated as proved of the facts reported therein. It is now well -settled that a statement of fact contained in a newspaper is merely hearsay and, therefore, inadmissible F G in evidence in the absence of the maker of the statement H A 748 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 3 S. C. R.

appearing in Court and deposing to have perceived the fact reported. " In the present case, no evidence has been let in proof of the state- ment of facts contained in the newspaper report. The absence of any denial B by Ch. Bhajan Lal will not absolve the applicant from discharging his obligation of proving the statement of facts as appeared in the Press report. In fact, Ch. Bhajan Lal in his counter affidavit has taken a stand that the statements attributed to him based on the newspaper report are mere hearsay and cannot in law be relied upon for. the purpose of . initiating such proceedings. Therefore, in the absence of required legal proof, the Court C will not be justified in issuing a suo moto notice for contempt of court. As Mr.

Kapil Sibal has pointed out when this alleged statement was made, the entire proceedings inclusive of investigation culminating from D the registration of the FIR had been quashed by the High Court and no stay has been granted by this Court and that the petitioner was not a party to the proceeding. A perusal of the news item does not spell out any reference to the E case of corruption or its proceeding pending before this Court. In the alleged contemptuous statement (Annexure 'A') only the view of the reporter is mentioned as if Ch. Bhajan Lal Iiad perhaps been provoked about the proceedings of the case before the Supreme Court. In fact, the Civil Appeal . No. 5412/90 itself has been disposed of on 21st November, · 1990 and I. A. No. 1/91 is filed in the above main Civil Appeal after its · F disposa~ even though Contempt Petition No. 7/89 has been filed before the disposal of the case.

Be that as it may, as we do not see any reason much less compelling reasons to issue suo moto notice to Ch. Bhajan Lal for contempt of court for the reasons mentioned above, as we feel that this ; ;petition is Hable to be dismissed. · o,:·; .. In the result, I. A. Nos. 1 and 2 of 1991 and Contempt Petition No. 7 of 1989 . are dismissed. No. costs. N. P. V. Petition and applications dismissed. •

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