Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Nov 14: Hearing in the contempt of court case filed against K N Putte Gowda, president of Advocates Association of Bangalore and two other office bearers of the Association by the High Court, was adjourned by the High Court (HC) to January next year. The court had taken on record a letter written by the Association to the judges, asking them not to attend to court work on Monday November 9, to fall in line with a resolution passed by the Association, asking its members to stay away from the court proceedings that day, as a mark of protest against the decision of the HC Chief Justice, Justice Dinakaran, to continue to hear cases in spite of the Association’s request to desist from participating in court proceedings till his name is cleared.

After some advocates disrupted the court work on Monday, a division bench comprising Justice K Sridhar Rao and Justice Ravi Malimath had ordered issuance of show cause to the Association’s office bearers.  The show cause notices have sought clarification as to why contempt of court case should not be registered against the Association’s office bearers for writing the above letters to the judges. The court had termed the letters as an attempt to interfere with the dispensation of justice. On Thursday, the office bearers of the Association had filed their replies.

When the case came up, the bench observed that the Association had filed their explanations with the registrar of the HC, although the court had filed the cases. This being a judicial proceedings, replies should have been given in the court itself, the bench observed.

Putte Gowda concurred with this observation. The case was adjourned to January 2010 for further hearing.