Petition seeking criminal contempt against M K Stalin

Chennai: S.Diwakar, a member of the AIADMK party and the Joint Secretary of Chennai South, AIADMK Lawyers wing, has filed a petition before the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu, seeking his consent to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt against DMK President M.K.Stalin for his alleged speech against the judgment of the Madras high court in the 18 disqualified MLAs case.

In his affidavit, Diwakar submitted that on June 4, 2018, the First bench of the Madras high court had delivered a split verdict on a batch of cases challenging the validity of the decision of the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, expelling 18 Members of the Legislative Assembly from the membership of the assembly. The matter was placed before a third judge, who delivered his verdict on October 25, 2018, upholding the decision of the Speaker, he added.

He said he was shocked to notice that on March 27, 2019 while delivering a election campaign speech at Theni, M.K.Stalin claimed that the high court was some how “managed”/”fixed”/”compromised” due to which the decision of the Speaker was upheld. He was enclosing herewith the affidavit, a CD containing the video of the speech. M.K.Stalin’s statement at 16 minutes 26 seconds of the video would show his statement which was absolutely scandalous and shocking.

The statement of Stalin squarely falls within the scope of criminal contempt as defined under section 2 © of the Contempt of Court Act. “In view of the above, it is therefore prayed that the Hon’ble Advocate General may be pleased to grant consent to the petitioner to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt against the Respondent and thus render justice”, he added.