Supreme Court issues contempt notices over Kerala Congress post

The Supreme Court of India on November 6 issued show-cause notices to officeholders of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, including its president and secretary, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated over a deleted social media post targeting Chief Justice Surya Kant. The notices do not determine whether the post constitutes contempt; the court said it had expressed no view on the merits at this stage.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M. Pancholi issued the notices while hearing a petition by advocate Vineet Jindal seeking action over the post. The court directed the officeholders to explain their position under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and exempted them from appearing personally.

The post appeared on October 12 on the Congress Kerala unit’s official X account. It urged Surya Kant to resign if law and order was not his responsibility, and said a replacement could be found. The post was later deleted.

Counsel for the Kerala Congress told the court that a party worker had uploaded the material without the leadership’s approval, that it had been taken down and that the party had apologized. Those statements were presented by the party’s...