Conviction For Contempt Against Advocate Over FB Post: SC Sets Aside P&H HC Order, Says It Wasn’t A Case For Contempt Action [Read Order]

Almost six months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court sentenced an advocate to one-month imprisonment for his contemptuous conduct in criticising a judge on Facebook, the Supreme Court has held that it was not a case where contempt action should have been taken in the first place.“We have gone through the matter in detail and are of the view that it was not a case where the contempt. Almost six months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court sentenced an advocate to one-month imprisonment for his contemptuous conduct in criticising a judge on Facebook, the Supreme Court has held that it was not a case where contempt action should have been taken in the first place. Vashistha was sentenced to one-month imprisonment by the high court on May 31 in a suo motu contempt case wherein he was held guilty of contempt of court for his Facebook post from September 2017, wherein he had said that the order passed by a high court judge in his case was not correct and that the judge had not uploaded the order even a week after pronouncement as he must have not understood what had to be written therein. Vashistha had in his appeal even said that the high court had lowered the dignity of all subordinate courts in Haryana when, while referring to a prayer for transfer of a case involving him, it noted in its May 31 judgment that all judicial officers of Haryana were afraid of his conduct and that they have been terrified that if any of them is not toeing his line of action, he would make complaints against them, would publish something in Facebook, newspapers etc.