HC drops contempt action against Ker Minister; accepts apology

In a relief to state Culture Minister K C Joseph, the Kerala High Court today dropped the contempt of court proceedings against him over his remarks about one of its judges, accepting his unconditional apology.
Disposing of the contempt petition filed by a CPI-M MLA, a division bench of justices Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Sunil Thomas expressed hope he would dissuade himself from making such remarks in future.
The court expressed its displeasure over the comments made by Joseph, a Congress leader, last July but said it was taking a lenient view on the matter.
The court also said the wrong committed was not momentary and thought process was involved.

In his petition, V Sivankutty had submitted the minister had committed criminal contempt by making derogatory remarks against Justice Alexander Thomas who had criticised the style of functioning of the state Advocate General's office.
The minister had made the remarks in a Facebook post last July while reacting to the judge's observations.

Earlier when the matter came up for hearing today, Joseph, who appeared in the court complying with its direction, produced a copy of his Facebook post in which he had made the apology on March 4.
The court also took note of his amended affidavit, filed two days ago, in which he had referred to the apology made by him on Facebook page.

He also informed the court that newspapers had carried the news about his apology throughout the state the very next day.
During the previous hearing on March 1, the court had observed that Joseph owes an apology to the public for making contemptuous comment against one of its judges last year.
In his earlier affidavit, Joseph had said the expressions used by him in the Facebook post were not intended to make any slanderous remarks against the judicial system or cause insinuation against a particular judge or to the system as a whole.