Bombay High Court Initiates Contempt Action Against Advocate For Alleged Defamatory Remarks Against Sitting & Former Judges
|The Bombay High Court has directed YouTube and ABP Majha Channels to remove the defamatory video showing the Advocate passing remarks on the Judges in a Press Conference held by him.
The Bombay High Court has initiated suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against Advocate Nilesh Ojha for his scandalous & defamatory remarks against a Sitting Judge and a Former Chief Justice of the High Court.
The High Court has also directed YouTube and ABP Majha Channels to remove the defamatory video showing the Advocate passing remarks on the Judges in a Press Conference held by him.
The 5-Judge Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice A.S. Chandurkar, Justice M.S. Sonak, Justice Ravindra V. Ghughe and Justice A.S. Gadkari said, “The statements also tend to lower the authority of the Court and such allegations also interfere with due course of judicial proceedings. The manner in which the said statements have been made and uploaded on You Tube and ABP Majha, certainly amounts to causing obstruction in the Administration of Justice. The statements of Mr.Nilesh Ojha, Advocate are ex facie contemptuous and amounts to interference in the administration of justice and in the course of judicial proceedings”
Factual Background
A video clip was brought to the notice of the Court showing that Advocate Nilesh Ojha held a press conference in connection with a Criminal Writ Petition which was filed by him on behalf of one Satish Salian. The said writ petition was listed for hearing on April 2, 2025 before the Division Bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Neela Gokhale. This video clip provided to the Court in a pen drive was allegedly streamed on YouTube and ABP Majha. Advocate Ojha had alleged in the press conference that Justice Revati Mohite-Dere was disqualified from hearing the Criminal Writ Petition as Vandana Chavan, an accused in the FIR lodged by him (his client), is the sister of the sitting Judge and is a member of Sharad Pawar NCP group.
It was alleged that the sanction was deemed to have been granted to prosecute the sitting Judge as well as the former Chief Justice of the High Court for delaying the hearing in the case of Disha Salian. It was further stated that the office of the President of India had orally informed that action is being taken to prosecute the Judges. Allegations of forgery of the court records were also made.
Reasoning
The Court held that Advocate Ojha was under an obligation to make submissions, if so advised, with regard to recusal of the Judge before the Division Bench itself on the date of hearing, i.e. April 2, 2025, as it is for the Judge to recuse himself or herself from hearing the matter. However, he held a press conference instead of making submissions before the Bench.
“The statements in the press conference with regard to the recusal of a sitting Judge of this Court appear to have been made deliberately to scandalize the authority of the Court and a Judge of this Court. The act of publishing interviews prima facie amounts to scandalizing this Court by making scandalous and defamatory allegations against a Judge of this Court”, it held.
Thus, directing the Regisrty to issue notice to Advocate Nilesh Ojha under Rule 9(1) read with Rule 8 of the Contempt of Courts (Bombay High Court) Rules, 1994, the Bench ordered, “Considering the scandalous and contemptuous nature of offending video, as an interim measure, it is directed that You Tube and ABP Majha shall remove the video from their channels, forthwith. The Union of India and the State of Maharashtra are directed to ensure that the aforesaid ad-interim orders are implemented forthwith.”
Cause Title: High Court of Judicature at Bombay on its own motion v. Mr. Nilesh Ojha & Ors. (Case No.: Criminal Suo Motu Contempt Petition No. 1 of 2025)