Contempt of court requires substantial interference with the due course of justice and fair and reasonable criticism of Judges' conduct or character in relation to their judicial duties does not amount to contempt.

( 1 ) THIS is a Rule issued by our learned brothers R. N. Dutt and K. K. Mitra. JJ. under Contempt of Court's Act against the opposite party B. Mazumdar alia Baima-lendu Majumdar, M, A. , B. L. . Court Inspector. Barrackpore. for contempt of Shri Sailendra Nath Chakrabortv, Magistrate, 1st Class. Barrackpore, as reported to this Hon'ble Court.

( 2 ) PURSUANT to the direction of this court the alleged contemnor B-Majumdar appeared in person before us and showed cause through his Advocate Sri. K. B. Roy.

( 3 ) THE short facts leading to the Rule are as follows : the said Magistrate Sailendra Nath Chakraborty insisted that Court Inspectors must use cartridge or conquest papers in their petitions intended to be filed before the said court. But as the police fund did not permit such expenditure the Court Inspectors could not use such papers in their petitions before the said court and for that the Court Inspector alleged to have incur-red the displeasure of the said Magistrate. This will be evident from An-nexures C and D. The learned Magistrate has taken strong exceptions to the two communications one dt. 1-4-1970. (Annexure A) and another dated 6-7-1970 (Annexure B) sent by the alleged contemnor both to the District Magistrate. 24-Parganas, with copies to the S. D. M. , the S. P, and the A. S. P.

( 4 ) NOW in this first letter dated 1-4-1970 the real point for consideration is whether the following sentences constitute contempt of court. The relevant sentences run as follows :"shri Chakrabortv, Magistrate, 1st Class, Barrackpore is not of iudicious temparament and at the same time very much whimsical. That his behaviour is rude and rough and this will bo supported by each and every member of the Barrackpore Bar and also by each and every employee in S. D. M's office who frequently come in contact with him. . . . . That Shri Chakrabortv has recently passed an order that all petitions and hajiras of witnesses as filed in this court in connection with the police case must be filed in cartridge or conquest papers. . . . . and making a note "no notice is taken of the petition as it is not in a cartridge or conquest paper. . . . . It is surprising that Shri Chakraborty has been accepting petitions in excise cases from the excise prosecutors in quarter size Foolscape papers which are neither cartridge nor conquest papers. . . . . he is unfavourably disposed towards the police who are being unreasonably discriminated against by the learned Magistrate. . . . . . . . . . . . this attitude of Shri Chakraborty towards the Police cases is really unhappy and something may kindly be done immediately to remedy the existing state of affairs. "thereafter on the 6th of July. 1970 an Incident happened in court between the said Magistrate and the Court Inspector and the Court Inspector wrote a letter to the District Magistrate on the said date recording the entire incident and sent copies to S. D. M. and S. P. (Exhibit B ). In that letter he inter alia wrote :". . . . . Whereupon I said "well. Sir how will it be possible for O. C. to submit his explanation unless he gets a copy ? Your honour should not act in a vindictive manner". as soon as I said this Shri Chakraborty became exceedinglv excited and flared up and asked his Bench Clerk to go to the door (there is only one door for entrance and exit for the room) and shut the same. Seeing that Shri Chakrabortv had lost his temper and was out to humiliate me in the presence of the Lawyers and litigant I left the Court room. . . . . . The learned Magistrate had been acting with a bias against the prosecution. It will be very difficult for my Court Inspectors to conduct cases in his court if the learned Magistrate behaves or rather misbehaves with the police officers in the way described above. The learned Magistrate is ill-tempered, suffers from an extraordinary sense of 'superiority Complex' and hardly loses an opportunity of insulting the police and putting them in trouble. "the i