JAIPUR, Oct 3: A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court has issued a show cause notice to State Law Secretary Jagat Singh on a charge of contempt of court.Singh invited this action against him due to a circular issued by him to all Principal Secretaries and Special Secretaries seeking details of the cases in which they were called to the court so that the Chief Minister could apprise the Chief Justice of India about the ``harassment'' caused to them.The division bench, which comprised Chief Justice M G Mukherjee and Justice D C Dalela, told the registry to register a case of contempt against him and also issued a notice to the Advocate-General with a request to assist the court. The next hearing is scheduled for November 3.The bench had taken notice of the circular suo motu. In their order, the judges read out the circular, dated 20-9-97, which read: ``(The) Honourable Chief Justice of India is scheduled to visit Jaipur on September 27, 1997.On this occasion, (the) Honourable Chief Minister desires to apprise His Lordship about the harassment caused to Secretaries of the Government of Rajasthan (through the frequent summons) by the Honourable High Court judges.''The bench said that `a letter of apology dated 23-9-97' also written by the State Law Secretary, had reached them too. In the letter, Singh requested for a personal appearance to ask for pardon.In its order, the bench said: ``We are prima facie of the view that the earlier circular.lowers or tends to lower the authority of the court, for which a prima facie case of contempt is made out. Whether in the context of such a circular we should accept his apology or not would be a question which we have to decide in the presence of the learned Advocate-General.''
