MAHARASHTRA MINISTER and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Monday filed a reply to the show-cause notice issued against him in a contempt plea by Dhyandev Wankhede, father of former NCB zonal director and IRS officer Sameer Wankhede. The plea claimed that despite undertaking given by him to the court in December last year, Malik continued to defame Wankhede’s family.
Malik alleged that there were false additions in transcripts submitted to the court by Wankhede. He claimed that Wankhede deliberately added Sameer’s name in the portions of submitted transcripts to claim that the NCP leader had allegedly breached hiw undertakings before the court.
A division bench of Justice S J Kathawalla and Justice M N Jadhav on February 8 had issued a show-cause notice to Malik and asked him to respond by February 21, stating why action must not be taken against him and contempt proceedings initiated in accordance with the law.
Dhyandev’s contempt plea said Malik wilfully breached the undertaking. Citing alleged remarks by Malik on December 28 last year and on January 2 and 3, he sought that Malik be held guilty of contempt under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
Malik, who remained present in the court on Monday, sought withdrawal of show-cause notice through his affidavit which stated, “…this court was wrongfully induced to entertain the contempt petition and issue notice on the basis of such false/ deliberately incorrect extracts. …in view of the interpolations/ false additions in extracts relied on in the petition”.
He said in his statements, he had merely referred to the schedule of hearing on his complaint to the caste scrutiny committee pertaining to Sameer’s alleged fake caste certificate. There was no “clever drafting,” in said statements and no intention to breach undertaking given to court. The court took Malik’s affidavit on record and asked Wankhede to file a rejoinder within a week.
