ORDER

1. The appellants who have been convicted under the Contempt of Courts Act for criminal contempt by the High Court have been sentenced to one-month simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5000. In these statutory appeals, the said conviction and sentence has been challenged by the appellants on various grounds including that they have not made the derogatory statement attributed to them. But we do not think it is necessary for us to go into that question since the appellants are entitled to succeed in these appeals on a technical ground.

2. Under the Contempt of Courts Act, the petition seeking the f punishment for contempt can be invoked by a party only with the prior written consent of the Advocate General of the State under Section 15 of the said Act. This position in law is now well settled by judgments of this Court in the cases of State of Kerala v. M.S. Mani1 and Bal Thackrey v. Barish Pimpalkhute2 wherein it is held that prior written sanction of the Advocate General under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act is a mandatory g requirement for invoking the contempt jurisdiction of the court by a private party.

3. In the instant appeals, it is not disputed that the comp