The Delhi High Court on Monday sentenced a lawyer to a month's prison term for writing a letter containing "malicious'' allegations against two judges more than a year after holding him guilty of contempt of court.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 2000 on the lawyer directing that if he fails to pay the amount, he will have to stay for another 10 days in the jail. After the conviction order on April 10, 2008 against him, the lawyer had filed several applications questioning the power of the judges to deal with contempt cases, which had delayed the court to award the sentence against him.
The Court had also issued a non-bailable warrant against him after he failed to appear before it at the time of pronouncement of the verdict despite several notices and directed the police to arrest him immediately. The lawyer had sent a letter to the Chief Justice Of India (CJI) three years ago and used "offensive'' language against the judges after he got an adverse order in a tenancy-related case to his landlord in Vasant Vihar.
"By making libelous allegation which are per se scurrilous, highly offensive, malicious and beyond condonable limit, Srivastava has not only traversed the sacrosanct line between constructive criticism of judicial process and denigration of judges but breached all the precepts of restraint and righteousness,'' the Bench had said while holding him guilty.
