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In Re: N. Peddi Raju and Others

Contempt Petition · 2025 INSC 989Decided 11 Aug 2025
Suo Moto Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 3 of 2025
Chief Justice · Justice K. Vinod Chandran · Justice Atul S. Chandurkar

Background

A litigant had filed a Transfer Petition seeking to move his criminal case from the Telangana High Court to the Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench), alleging that the hearing judge was biased and had curtailed his counsel's arguments to just five minutes, and separately making scandalous remarks suggesting the judge would favour a politically influential opposing party. The Supreme Court dismissed the transfer petition but, troubled by the scandalous language used against the High Court judge, issued show-cause notices for contempt to the litigant (N. Peddi Raju), the Advocate-on-Record who filed the petition, and the counsel who drafted it. All three tendered affidavits of apology.

Decision Breakdown

The Court reaffirmed longstanding precedent (M.Y. Shareef v. Judges of Nagpur High Court) that lawyers who sign pleadings scandalising a court without reasonably verifying the allegations are themselves guilty of contempt, since a lawyer's duty to the court overrides duty to the client. It firmly rejected the idea that a case involving a political figure justifies assuming a High Court judge cannot act impartially, calling this itself an attack on the institution of justice. Noting the apology was tendered only to the Supreme Court and not to the High Court judge who was actually maligned, the Court permitted the contemnors to tender an unconditional apology directly before that judge, directed the underlying (already-disposed) criminal case be reopened solely for that purpose, and deferred its final view on accepting the apology until after the High Court judge rules on it.

Lesson Learnt

Lawyers bear personal responsibility for scandalous allegations they put into court pleadings on a client's instructions, merely following a client's wishes is no defence, and an apology for maligning a judge is most meaningful when offered to that judge directly, not just to a higher court.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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