The matter concerns public remarks made against another judge, Justice Suman Shyam, regarding a proposal to shift the Gauhati High Court to a new location.
Gauhati: Kamal Nayan Choudhury, President of the Gauhati High Court Bar Association (GHCBA), on Wednesday requested that Justice N Unni Krishnan Nair step away from hearing a contempt of court case. This request was made during the proceedings before a Bench consisting of Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice Nair.
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The contempt petitions have been filed by Advocate General (AG) Devajit Saikia against three lawyers: Kamal Nayan Choudhury himself, Advocate Pallavi Talukdar, and Senior Advocate Anil Kumar Bhattacharya.
The matter concerns public remarks made against another judge, Justice Suman Shyam, regarding a proposal to shift the Gauhati High Court to a new location.
AG Saikia argued that these comments amounted to a direct attack on the judiciary.
“This is an institutional attack. This is not an attack on Justice Suman Shyam as an individual,” he told the Court.
After the Bench reserved its order on April 8, Choudhury mentioned a serious concern on April 9.
He pointed out that Justice Nair had “liked” a post on a news channel page—Prag News—related to the ongoing contempt matter.
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Quoting Choudhury:
“There is a post in this channel called Prag News. In vernacular it says … when we literally translate it into English – ‘criminal case has been registered against a section of the lawyers of the Association’. This is the post and this has been liked by none other than Hon’ble Justice Unni Krishnan Nair,” he submitted.
In response, Chief Justice Bishnoi asked, “So?”
Choudhury replied,
“It is for your lordships. It is my duty to point out. Here is a news item which says some lawyers of the Association are being booked under criminal law. A judge who is adjudicating the issue, Hon’ble judge, and he is liking it and therefore in my humble submission, his lordship should recuse from the case.”
The Chief Justice took note of the concern and remarked that the court would consider this prayer too, before proceeding to hear other matters.
The whole issue began when GHCBA led a protest last month against the idea of shifting the High Court building from its current premises. The protest included public statements by some members, which AG Saikia viewed as derogatory towards Justice Suman Shyam.
In court, Saikia accused Advocate Talukdar and Senior Advocate Bhattacharya of making inappropriate comments in media interviews. He also alleged that Choudhury, as the Bar Association President, failed to take any disciplinary action.
On the other hand, Choudhury defended himself, saying the AG’s contempt petitions were driven by “personal animosity”. He also opposed the Court’s move to issue notices against him, stating that he was not responsible for the statements made by the other two lawyers.
Earlier, on April 3, the Gauhati High Court had issued an official press release strongly condemning the verbal remarks made against Justice Shyam. While the GHCBA had distanced itself from the comments, the Court criticised the Bar Association for not taking firm action against those who made them.
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