Petition filed against CJP's Saurav Das over post on Punjab and Haryana high court's order

The petition alleges that Saurav Das's post scandalised the judgement passed by the Punjab and Haryana high court on August 3.

Cockroach Janta Party co-convener Saurav Das finds himself in another soup as a criminal contempt petition was filed against him at the Punjab and Haryana high court by a Bharatiya Janata Party leader over a social media post shared by him on August 20 about a recent judgement passed by the court.

The petition was filed by Nitin Garg, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Punjab unit's state general secretary and alleged that in the post made by Das, he criticised the judgement and said that Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra had “violated the roster” to withdraw a “politically sensitive” matter from another bench that he described as “independent”, reported Bar and Bench.

The bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor of Punjab and Haryana high court passed a judgement on August 3 directing the Punjab government to clear pending dearness allowance (DA) of employees and pensioners within a fortnight.

Justice Mishra was then the acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court.

The bench had also ordered that till all such dues are cleared, the government would not “resort to any unproductive expenditures”, such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media, as these expenses cannot justify the denial of dues admissible to state employees. In default, the unpaid amounts would carry 6% interest per annum.

Taking to his X account, Das alleged that Justice Mishra withdrew the “politically sensitive” case from another bench that “had a reputation of being independent” and “violated the roster”.

Also read: CJP agrees to take down posts against BJP's Gaurav Bhatia after Delhi HC's appeal: 'Attacking without verifying'

He added that the order created “a financial liability of ₹20,000 crores” and “reduced the time period to pay the amount from 30 days to 15 days, which in all terms is a practical impossibility”.

“Days later, on 6 August, the ACJ gets promoted as the Chief Justice of the same High Court,” Das added.

“If you remember, I had reported how the previous Chief Justice too had violated the roster to withdraw and list politically sensitive cases related to AAP-to-BJP defector MPs. That Chief Justice was elevated to the Supreme Court recently. Why are roster violations and misuse of master of roster powers being accepted? Several such instances in opposition ruled states. We must guard our institutions from being weaponised to meet political ends,” Das wrote on X.

What does the petition say?

The petition alleges that Das's post scandalised the judgement passed by the court. It also claims that Justice Mishra's elevation to the Supreme Court was only done after recommendation by the Supreme Court Collegium.

Also read: Gaurav Bhatia vs Saurav Das continues after defamation suit hearing in Delhi HC: ‘No comment’, ‘pantless’

"To convert a recommendation into a “promotion”, and then to invite the reader to infer a quid pro quo with “the BJP”, is a knowing use of a false major premise to support a defamatory conclusion," the plea says, according to the Bar and Bench report.

The fresh petition against Das comes right after BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia filed a ₹2 crore defamation case against him and other CJP leaders over a post made by Das.

The Delhi high court on Thursday took a dim view of the posts in which he claimed that BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia had called Swatantra Bhardwaj a “dimagi naxal”, following which Das and the party’s co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka undertook to take down the posts within 24 hours.

A bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that making allegations without proper verification is “not correct”.

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