The country’s Supreme Court on Tuesday took suo motu cognizance of an order issued by a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In fact, the High Court judge commented criticizing the stay order issued by the Supreme Court on a case in which the High Court had initiated contempt proceedings. The judge said that the Supreme Court considers itself more “supreme”. It actually considers the High Courts constitutionally less “high”.
A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy, which comprises the first five judges of the apex court, will hear the case on Wednesday.
Earlier, Justice Sehrawat of the Punjab High Court said that the Supreme Court considers itself to be more supreme while it considers itself to be less superior than the powers given to the High Courts by the Constitution.
Justice Sahrawat said the Supreme Court does not stay contempt proceedings while hearing an appeal against the order initiating contempt, but only when hearing an appeal against the order which led to contempt proceedings.
Justice Sahrawat stressed that the apex court itself has clarified several times that the High Courts are not subordinate to the Supreme Court. “The relationship between the High Court and the Supreme Court is not the same as that between a civil judge (junior division) and the High Court in its jurisdiction.
After these comments of Justice Sahrawat, on Monday evening, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Sheel Nagu amended the roster of the High Court and transferred all the contempt of court cases from Justice Sahrawat to Justice Harkesh Manuja. Now the Hon’ble Supreme Court will hear this on Wednesday, 7th July.
