In a major relief for Manoj Tiwari, the Supreme Court on Thursday spared the Delhi BJP chief of any punitive action but disapproved his action of breaking the seal of a building under “mob” pressure. The house was sealed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in Gokalpuri in September.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, who had last month reserved its order on contempt proceedings initiated against Tiwari, said the BJP state president appeared to be a “rebel without a cause” and termed his act as “misplaced bravado”. The court also sought to know if it was proper for an elected representative to defy the law.
The court also expressed “shock” over Tiwari’s response that he broke open the locks due to pressure from the “mob” who had reportedly turned violent.
We are extremely pained by Manoj Tiwari’s behaviour of taking law into his own hands, the bench said.
The bench also ruled that the sealing of the premises concerned had nothing to do with the Monitoring Committee approached by the court and Tiwari’s allegations against the court-mandated committee showed how “low he can stoop”. The committee was not consulted in the case, the court said.
