CHENNAI: Justice Sunder Mohan, on Thursday, recused himself from hearing the maintainability of criminal contempt filed by political commentator and YouTuber 'Savukku' Shankar, against DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi.

The criminal contempt petition is listed before a division bench of the Madras High Court (MHC) comprising Justice SS Sundar and Justice Sunder Mohan, to decide the maintainability of the petition.

However, Justice Sunder Mohan told the counsel for the petitioner, P Vijendran that he recused from hearing the case. The bench directed the petitioner to approach another bench.

'Savukku' Shankar filed criminal contempt against R S Bharathi for his comments on Justice N Anand Venkatesh as he is adopting a 'pick and choose policy' in initiating the Suo Motu action against ministers and also attributed malafide intentions to the judge while addressing the media on August 24, said Savukku Shankar. He also contended that Bharathi's comments had caused damage to the credibility of the judiciary in the eyes of the public and sought strict action against him under the Contempt of Courts Act.

However, the Advocate General (AG) R Shunmugasundaram refused to grant consent to the application to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt against Bharathi. 'I do not see any reason to grant consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against him' said the AG while refusing the application.