SC to hear plea to take down BJP MPs' posts attacking it, CJI

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to hear next week a plea seeking directions for taking down comments of BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Dinesh Sharma , attacking the apex court and the Chief Justice of India (CJI), from social media platforms.

The petition reached the court a day after it had asked an advocate to seek the attorney general’s consent for filing a contempt petition against Dubey and Sharma for their caustic allegations.

Mentioning the petition for urgent hearing, the petitioner, also an advocate, told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and A G Masih that while the statements of the BJP MPs were condemnable and unwarranted, the same were being widely circulated on social media, causing irreparable harm to the prestige and dignity of SC and institution of CJI as head of judiciary.

The counsel said while the statements of the MPs were making rounds on social media, so are more caustic reactions to these remarks. “Though the party has distanced itself from statements of the MPs, govt is doing nothing to direct the social media platforms to take down all posts linked to the offensive statements,” he said.

Earlier, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar had launched a scathing attack on SC for the judgement rendered by Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan that fixed a three-month timeline for the President to take act on the Bills passed by assemblies, reserved for her by the governor.

On Monday, while hearing a petition seeking imposition of President’s Rule in West Bengal because of violence targeted at Hindus, the bench headed by Justice Gavai had exclaimed, “You want us to direct Centre to impose President’s Rule in West Bengal? As it is we are being accused of intruding into the legislative and executive domains.”