MUMBAI, September 14: The Bombay High Court today issued a suo moto contempt notice to the owner-publisher of the Marathi daily newspaper Navakaal for its editorial writings on the Justice B N Srikrishna inquiry report.The notice was issued to the publisher, Jayashree Khadilkar Pandey of Navakaal press, and the Government of Maharashtra by the division bench of Justice V P Tipnis and S S Parkar. The respondent parties have been asked to remain present in the court on October 6.
The notice comes in the wake of a series of editorials published by the newspaper between August 8 and 12. The additional registrar of the BHC recently brought the newspaper reports to the notice of Chief Justice M B Shah, following which the contempt proceedings were initiated.
The notice states that editorials of Navakaal had lowered the dignity of the judiciary in the eyes of the general public. While coming down heavily on the contents of the Srikrishna Commission's report, the editorials had called for Justice Srikrishna'sarrest, while casting aspersions on the state of the judge's mental health. The editorials had also termed the report biased, venomous and incendiary.
When Express Newsline contacted publisher Jayashree Khadilkar Pandey today she said since her office had not yet received the notice, she would not like to comment.
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