A Navi Mumbai resident was sentenced to one week in jail for calling High Court and Supreme Court judges part of a “dog mafia”. The Bombay High Court found her remarks insulting and damaging to judicial dignity.
The Bombay High Court has given a one-week simple jail sentence to a woman named Vineeta Srinandan for showing disrespect to the court. This happened in a contempt of court case. Vineeta is a resident of Navi Mumbai and works as the Cultural Director of the Seawoods Housing Society. The court punished her after she made serious and insulting statements about judges of the High Court and Supreme Court, calling them a part of a “dog mafia”.
However, the court has paused her sentence for 10 days after her lawyers requested time so she could appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.
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The court took up this matter on its own (suo motu) after Vineeta was found to have circulated some written material among the residents of the Seawoods society. In this material, she had made statements that the court said insulted the judiciary and disturbed the legal process.
Vineeta Srinandan was found guilty after one of her documents was submitted in the court. In that document,
she wrote,
“now we are convinced that there is a big dog mafia operating in the country, who has a list of High Court and Supreme Court judges…”
This case is connected to a long legal fight among residents of Seawoods about feeding stray dogs. There was a challenge made against a rule under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. This rule asks housing societies to allow people to feed stray dogs in a designated way.
As a part of the ongoing case, a woman named Leela Verma filed an Intervention Application. She was being stopped from feeding dogs at the decided places in the society.
In January, the court passed an order saying that the society cannot stop Leela Verma from feeding stray dogs. After that, Leela gave an affidavit to the court which included the controversial document written by Vineeta Srinandan.
In the document, Vineeta had made some very strong accusations. She claimed that there was a “dog mafia” that included the names of judges and said they were biased towards people who feed dogs.
One part of her document said,
“Now we are convinced that there is a big dog mafia operating in the country, who has a list of High Court and Supreme Court judges having views similar to the dog feeders… most of the high court/supreme court orders will defend dog feeders, ignoring the value of human life.”
The court said these words were very offensive and damaging to the respect and trust people have in the judiciary. The judges said this was a serious effort to bring down the image and dignity of the courts.
On February 7, the court sent a show-cause notice to Vineeta asking her why she should not be punished. After this, she filed an affidavit and gave an apology. But the court did not accept it.
The court said,
“We do not accept any apology which does not show any contrition or any genuine remorse,” and added that: “the apology appeared to be ‘a routine mantra of sorry’ intended only as a legal shield.”
The court also said that,
such behaviour, especially from an educated person, shows that she clearly meant to attack the justice system and reduce its dignity in the eyes of the public.
This incident is a reminder of how seriously the courts take their responsibility and how important it is for every citizen to respect the judiciary.
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