PoliticsJudiciary
Attorney General clears contempt case against Sanjay Raut and Nikhil Wagle over CJI remarks
R Venkataramani called their posts on Chief Justice Surya Kant 'prima-facie scandalous'. Wagle has apologised and deleted his post; Raut has not responded.
Key points
- Attorney General R Venkataramani gave consent for criminal contempt proceedings on the day the SCBA filed its petition.
- He said Raut's claims about judges attending BJP events and dinners were not based on facts.
- Journalist Nikhil Wagle apologised unconditionally and deleted his post on Thursday.
Attorney General R Venkataramani has allowed the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to pursue criminal contempt proceedings against Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut and journalist Nikhil Wagle over their remarks about Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
The SCBA filed its petition on Thursday, 15 October, and the Attorney General gave his consent the same day. Under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, a private party needs the Attorney General’s consent before it can ask the Supreme Court to begin criminal contempt proceedings. The petition has yet to be listed for hearing.
What was said
Both men had reacted to the Chief Justice’s refusal to meet a delegation of opposition leaders in person. The CJI had suggested they file a petition instead; on 12 October the INDIA bloc marched towards the court and filed one.
Wagle responded on X to a report on the CJI’s decision with an abusive post aimed at the Chief Justice. Raut, in remarks carried on 12 October, said judges had attended BJP political programmes in BJP-ruled states and that chief ministers had hosted dinners for judges. The SCBA’s petition says he also referred to photographs of judges playing badminton with political figures in London. A Delhi High Court order of 19 June had already found that those photographs were taken at a November 2025 event in New Delhi and ordered them taken down.
The Attorney General’s view
In his consent letter, Venkataramani called the posts “prima-facie scandalous” and said they were meant to lower the standing of the Supreme Court. He described Wagle’s post as abusive and of a low level. On Raut, he said the claims about judges and dinners were not based on facts, and pointed out that the High Court order on the photographs came before the MP’s statement.
“It is important that the Hon’ble Member of Parliament should have verified the facts,” the Attorney General wrote.
The SCBA has asked the court to act against both men for criminal contempt, to direct X Corp, Meta, Google and the news agency IANS to preserve the posts, videos and account records, and to restrain the two from making similar allegations against the CJI and other judges while the case is pending. The bar body said it had no objection to fair criticism of the judiciary. “The deliberate scandalous words / expressions being willingly used by the Respondents go beyond fair criticism,” its petition says.
An apology, and silence
Wagle moved quickly. On Thursday he posted on X a letter to the Attorney General in which he apologised unconditionally to the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court, said he had deleted the post, and asked that the matter not be pursued. There was no response from Raut by Friday morning.
The case lands in a tense week for relations between the court and the opposition. On Thursday the Supreme Court issued notice on a plea against the 12 October march by opposition leaders, and the Bar Council of Delhi has separately condemned personal attacks on judges.