New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (October 16), issued notices on a contempt plea of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) against Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) (Shiv Sena (UBT)) MP Sanjay Raut and journalist Nikhil Wagle over their purported comments on the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and the judiciary, reported Bar and Bench.A Supreme Court bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the order on Friday.“We are giving a show cause … as of now we are granting exemption for personal appearance. Let us see,” CJI Kant said on Friday while issuing notices to the duo.Earlier, Attorney General for India R. Venkataramani had granted consent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Raut and Wagle on the request of SCBA over remarks concerning the CJI and the judiciary, following which the notices were issued.On Thursday (October 15) the apex court had asked Raut to explain his remarks on the CJI after the latter refused to meet opposition leaders.“In W.P. (C) No. 1351/2026 (Item 25), the petition on behalf of Petitioner No. 6 is entertained on a provisional basis, subject to his explaining his conduct,” the bench said in its order on Thursday (October 15).Earlier on Thursday, while hearing the batch of petitions by Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Supreme Court had issued notice to the ECI and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.Raut had earlier claimed that 80 Supreme Court and High Court judges were seen playing badminton with political leaders in London.“You can meet them, play with them, have dinner or lunch with them, with Chief Ministers. You can suddenly resign to join a political party. You don’t care for principles and law then but when we want to meet you to save democracy…you say we will not meet political leaders,” Raut had said, reported Bar and Bench.Raut had said in another interaction with the media that judges freely attend political programmes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and that its chief ministers organise dinners to welcome them.Journalist Wagle had posted “**** you CJI!” from his X account in response to a report by The Hindu on the CJI’s decision. He had subsequently deleted the tweet and apologised for his post.