SC reserves order on contempt petition against BJP MP Manoj Tiwari

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on contempt proceedings against BJP Lok Sabha member Manoj Tiwari for breaking the seal of a premises, asking him how he could take the law into his hands.

When Tiwari argued that the premises were illegally sealed, a bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta said that there were other remedies available to the accused.

Senior counsel Vikas Singh, appearing for Tiwari, told the court that he was not in contempt as the premises in question were not sealed on the direction of the court or the monitoring committee.

When Tiwari said that he broke the seal as there was a crowd of more than 1,500 people agitating there, Justice Nazeer shot back: "Are we ruled by mobs? Alright if it is incorrectly sealed. What is your responsibility as an elected representative?"

The court asked Tiwari why he did not approach the authorities if the premises was illegally sealed.

Tiwari trained his guns on the court-appointed monitoring committee for playing to the galleries and terrorising the people with its sealing drives.

He said that there was no Section or provision of law or notice before the sealing took place.

He said that merely because officials were accompanied by a police force does not give them the right to seal any premises without prior information and publicising the proposed action.

Appearing for the monitoring committee, counsel A.D.N. Rao urged the court to impose a fine on Tiwari which would pinch his pocket and not send him to jail which he would use for political advantage.

Countering Tiwari's assertions, Rao said that the owner of the said premises has already paid a fine of Rs 39,000 and has made no grievance about the action. Yet, a third person unconnected with the sealed premises goes and breaks the seal.

--IANS

pk/shs/vm