Kerala AG sanctions contempt of court against V-Guard mogul Kochouseph Chittilappilly

Trouble is brewing for Kochouseph Chittilappilly as the Advocate General of Kerala has sanctioned two lawyers to move for criminal contempt over the billionaire businessman's remarks against a sitting judge. 

It is claimed that Kochouseph Chittilappilly lowered the dignity of the court by writing a letter to the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court over the remarks allegedly made by Judge Devan Ramachandran.

Judge Ramachandran was hearing a compensation case of an incident which happened 16 years ago at Veega Land (now Wonder La) when the victim, Vijesh Vijayan, became semi-paralysed after an accident at the park in 2002. In his letter to the Chief Justice, Chittilappilly alleged that Judge Ramachandran had made personal comments against him while hearing the case.

Kerala AG CP Sudhakara Prasad has sanctioned two lawyers to move a case of criminal contempt against Kochouseph Chittilappilly, who is the owner of V-Guard group and Wonder La water theme parks. It is alleged that Chittilappilly revealed the letter to the media to intentionally deride Judge Ramachandran and compel him to avoid hearing of the case.

The AG also observed that Chittilappilly was not a party to the case and made the complaint solely based on newspaper reports without examining their veracity, reports Live Law.

"If the intention was to bring it to the notice of the honourable Chief Justice about the court proceedings, it is unnecessary to send it to newspapers. From this it is evident that the intention of the respondent in sending the complaint for publication to the newspapers is to lower the dignity of the court and at the same time to give publicity about the achievements he made stated therein," stated the sanction order, adds the report.

In an affidavit filed by advocate Saju S Nair, who appeared in the compensation case on June 17, it states that the judge did not make any personal remark against Chittilappilly. If found guilty, Chittilappilly could face a sentence up to six months and a fine of Rs 2,000 under section 12(1) of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971.