New Delhi: Two Supreme Court lawyers have sought permission from Attorney General for India R. Venkataramani to initiate a contempt petition against Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his recent remarks that Indian judiciary is the “single biggest hurdle” to Vikshit Bharat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s ambitious initiative for a ‘developed nation’ by the 100th anniversary of Independence.As per news reports, the request has been sought by advocate Rohit Pandey, former secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Ujjwal Gaur, an advocate and a member of the Association. Seeking permission of the attorney general is necessary before private individuals initiate contempt of court proceedings, under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. A report on The Telegraph said, “According to the advocates, Sanyal needed to be hauled up for asserting that ‘the judicial system and the legal ecosystem, but the judicial system in particular, is now in my view the single biggest hurdle to becoming Viksit Bharat and growing rapidly. I have said this before and I am saying it again…’.”On September 20, speaking at the Nyaya Nirman 2025 conclave, Sanyal said, “We effectively have somewhere between 20-25 years to become Viksit Bharat,” adding that “the judicial system and the legal ecosystem, but the judicial system in particular, is now, in my view, the single biggest hurdle to becoming Viksit Bharat and growing rapidly.” As per news reports, “The EAC member singled out slow dispute resolution and weak enforcement of contracts as key problems that force policymakers to over-engineer regulations.”A Bar and Bench report noted that Sanyal also called for a “cultural acceptance” within the legal profession of its systemic shortcomings instead of what he described as “self congratulatory tone” at conferences. In the letter addressed to the attorney general, the SC advocates also highlighted some other remarks made by Sanyal on the judiciary, including its vacations. “The judiciary is a public service like any other part of the state. Let’s say the doctors decide that we will take summer vacation, Dussehra vacation, winter vacation and shut down the hospitals… would that be acceptable? Why is it acceptable for the courts?” he reportedly said.The Telegraph report said that the letter mentioned that Sanyal “had likened the legal profession to a ‘medieval guild with a caste system of stratification’, questioning the existence of senior advocates, advocates-on-record, and even whether a law degree should be required to argue cases in court.”The letter stated, “While respectful and constructive criticism of legal processes is both permissible and desirable in a democracy, the above remarks, particularly branding the judiciary as the ‘single biggest hurdle’ to national progress and dismissing the Bar as a ‘medieval guild’ amount to a sweeping attack on the entire judicial system.”Often in news for his controversial comments, Sanyal found himself in an online spat on X early this month after he had likened the political tension in the United States post assassination of Charlie Kirk to the eve of the American Civil War.This April, Sanyal was in news for his removal from the post of the chancellor of the prestigious Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune for failing to provide a “concrete plan of action” for the institution’s revival.