Chennai, July 28 The Madras High Court on Monday described as “unfortunate” the ongoing controversy over allegations of caste and communal bias against a sitting judge, and referred the matter to the Chief Justice of the court for further orders.
The development came as a division bench comprising Justice G.R. Swaminathan and Justice K. Rajasekaran heard a matter involving Advocate Vanchinathan, who was summoned to explain whether he stood by his statements accusing Justice Swaminathan of bias in favour of lawyers from the Brahmin community while allegedly discriminating against others.
When the matter was taken up, the bench asked Vanchinathan if he reaffirmed his accusations. In response, the advocate requested that the court provide the charges against him in writing so he could respond appropriately. The bench clarified that no contempt proceedings had been initiated yet, and any decision would be made based on his written response.
Justice Swaminathan observed that Vanchinathan had been making personal and defamatory remarks against him for the past three years, but he had refrained from reacting until now.
“There is a difference between criticising a judgment and attacking a judge personally with allegations of caste bias,” he said. He specifically referred to media interviews in which Vanchinathan had allegedly claimed the judge showed partiality based on caste.
The court made it clear that the present proceedings were not linked to the complaint filed by Vanchinathan with the Chief Justice of India, but were initiated solely based on his repeated public statements to the media, in which he accused the judge of caste and communal prejudice.
Last week, eight retired judges of the Madras High Court issued an appeal urging the bench to reconsider its action against Vanchinathan. They termed the move “premature” and said the court ought to have waited for the Chief Justice of India to act on the complaint before initiating proceedings.
In light of these developments, the bench has placed the matter before the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court for further consideration and directions.
--IANS
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