SC reserves contempt of court verdict against Tallal Chaudry

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved the contempt of court verdict against Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Tallal Chaudry. A three-member bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the contempt case against Tallal. The justice reserved the verdict and remarked that the verdict will be announced on appropriate time. The defence counsel informed the court that the Supreme Court's registrar had written a note to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on February 1, 2018, stating that a video clip of his client was contemptuous and was creating hindrances in legal proceedings. The note said that contempt proceedings against Chaudry should be taken up in compliance with Article 204. which deals with contempt of court against a high court or the Supreme Court, Murtaza informed the court. "The note was presented on February 1, and an order was issued on the same day, along with a notice," he said.  "However, my client, in the content on which the suo motu notice was taken had in fact said that disrespecting judicial mandate was the biggest contempt." To this argument, Justice Ahmed said that he was unaware of the documents that the defence counsel had spoken about. "The court had taken up contempt proceedings on two speeches [delivered by Chaudry]," the judge observed. Chaudry's legal counsel further said that the proceedings against his client were taken up on the basis of two speeches that had a three-minute duration each. "The reasons for contempt were not listed in the notice," he argued. After hearing arguments, Justice Gulzar reserved the contempt proceedings verdict against Tallal. He ordered that Tallal should appear before court during the announcement of the verdict. The verdict will be announced on suitable time.