Biplab Kumar Deb, The Chief Minister of Tripura asked his officers to not fear Contempt of Court while also mentioning that the earlier Chief Secretary was relieved from his duties because he was afraid of Contempt of Court.
“Contempt of Court is said in such a way as if a tiger is sitting. I am the tiger. The power lies with the person who runs the government. It means that all power lies with the people. We are a ‘by the people’s government and not by the court government,” the CM said.
Contempt of Court is a violation of the direction, Order or Judgement passed by a Judge in his official capaicty in Court. A person causing Contempt of Court can be fined or punished or both as per the Contempt of Court Act, 1971.
The meaning of Contempt of Court as defined in the Act is :
Unless the context otherwise requires,
Section 2 of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971
(a) contempt of court means civil contempt or criminal contempt;
(b) civil contempt means wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court;
(c) criminal contempt means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which
(i) scandalizes or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
(ii) prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
(iii) interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner;
(d) High Court means the High Court for a State or a Union territory, and includes the court of the Judicial Commissioner in any Union territory
At a biennial conference of the Tripura Civil Service Officers Association, The Chief Minister stated that Civil Service Officers should not fear Contempt of Court while working for the people. He called himself the tiger and said that he is powerful as he is in the ruling government. In a democracy, the government holds the power and Contempt of Court should not be considered as a powerful tiger.
As a reaction to the comments, Abhishekh Banerjee, the General Secretary of Trinamool Congress uploaded a video of Deb giving the speech on Twitter and claimed that The Chief Minister was mocking the Judiciary and Democracy
“@BjpBiplab is a DISGRACE to the entire nation! He shamelessly mocks Democracy, MOCKS the Hon’ble JUDICIARY and seemingly gets away with it! Will the SUPREME COURT take cognizance of his comments that reflect such grave disrespect?”
Sanjay Mishra, the OSD to the Chief Minister Deb reacted to Banerjee’s tweet and posted his own tweet saying,
“You must listen to full speech before spreading your fake propaganda, which you have learned from your political guru CPM and how much respect you have for government institutions we all know that.”
As a reaction to the Deb’s statement, CPM leader Pabitra Kar also said,
“Whatever chief minister said is an attack on Constitution and judiciary. Being a chief minister, he cannot say such things. We condemn it and we will take initiative to draw the attention of the judiciary towards the matter.”