Karnataka High Court convicts former employee of IIA for contempt of court and sentences him to imprisonment for four months

The Karnataka High Court convicted a former employee of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) for contempt of court in two separate cases – for making false statements before the court and making false and scandalous allegations against members of the legal community and judiciary – and sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment in each case.

While delivering the verdict, a Division Bench comprising Justice Anu Sivaraman and Justice Vijaykumar A. Patil convicted K. Dhananjay in two separate contempt cases, one initiated on a complaint filed by the IIA and the other. suo motu by the court.

The IIA’s case

The IIA had filed a contempt of court petition in 2018, alleging that he had made false and scandalous allegations in writing against himself, members of the Central Administrative Tribunal, judges of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General and lawyers representing the State and Central governments, in connection with proceedings on pleas challenging his removal from the IIA.

Meanwhile, the court is in 2019 suo motu He initiated another defamation case for filing a false statement of objection before the court, pretending to be filed on behalf of the Central government, by forging the signature of a lawyer representing the Central government.

Noting his conduct during the contempt proceedings before the court, the Bench observed that “his conduct was not only far from expressing any remorse for the first criminal contempt committed by him, but he also sought to justify his actions and made scandalous and unfounded statements against the judicial institution as a whole.”

‘Sociopaths like him…’

“His conduct can only be termed deliberate and callous and reveals a complete disregard for social, moral and judicial rules of conduct. We are of the clear view that if conduct of this nature is not punished, sociopaths like the accused are likely to repeat such crimes with impunity which will endanger the rule of law and the judicial system as a whole,” the Bench said.

Pointing out that he could not put forward any mitigating circumstances that would explain his derogatory behavior, the Panel said that he committed “aggravated insult against the court with abusive, scandalous and unfounded statements against the court’s lawyers, the Chief Public Prosecutor and the government lawyers, as well as the court judges.”