On a PIL seeking suo moto criminal contempt proceedings against Ashok Gehlot, a division bench of the Rajasthan High Court issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Minister on Saturday, news agency PTI reported. On Thursday, local counsel Shivcharan Gupta filed the PIL in response to the chief minister's statement about "corruption" in the court. On Saturday, a division bench led by Justice M M Shrivastava and Justice Ashutosh Kumar heard the case and issued a notice to Gehlot, instructing him to answer within three weeks.
Concerned about the judiciary, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot o Wednesday had said that there was "rampant corruption" in the country's jurisprudence, and that he had heard "many lawyers draught the judgement and take them to court and the same judgement is then delivered," according to news agency PTI.
While speaking with media in Jaipur on Wednesday, Gehlot said: "Corruption is rampant in the judiciary today. I have heard that some lawyers themselves take the judgement in writing and the same judgement is pronounced." However, after facing criticism, the chief minister later clarified that what he had said was not his personal opinion and that he has always respected and believed in the judiciary.
Thousands of attorneys boycotted work in Jodhpur's high and lower courts on Friday in response to the chief minister's remark.
CM Gehlot had said that the democracy was "under threat" under the BJP's leadership, claiming that central agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Income Tax department receive orders from the top and undertake searches without previous evaluation. He went on to say that a state's chief minister advocating the establishment of a high court was nothing new, but that the request had now translated into meddling in legal judgements.
“We have been MPs and Union Ministers too. There have been recommendations from our end. We must have helped appoint many judges to the high court. But once they became judges, I would never speak to them over legal matters for the rest of my life. I have my own approach,” CM Gehlot further said.