Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has initiated a fresh criminal contempt proceeding against Pramod Manmode, secretary of Nirmal Ujwal Credit Co-operative Society, over allegations that he made baseless accusations against a sitting judge and attempted to interfere with judicial proceedings.A division bench comprising Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Raj Wakode on Tuesday issued notice to Manmode in the suo motu criminal contempt proceeding and directed him to file his response by Sept 30.The fresh proceeding stems from an earlier contempt case pending against Manmode. During its hearing, he made certain allegations against Justice Anil Pansare. The court directed him to produce material supporting the allegations.HC subsequently observed that Manmode had failed to produce substantive documentary evidence in support of his written allegations and imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh on him. It also directed that a separate criminal contempt proceeding be initiated over the allegation that he had attempted to obstruct or interfere with the court proceedings.The court had specifically directed that the fresh contempt matter be heard before an appropriate and separate bench. Pursuant to that direction, the suo motu criminal contempt proceeding came up before Justices Joshi-Phalke and Wakode.The actual dispute arose in a Contempt Petition filed over alleged non-compliance with an April 29, 2025 HC judgement. The court had directed Nirmal society to remove a sub-station, transformer, water treatment plant and other construction from a 24-metre-wide development-plan road within four months. However, Manmode had sought Justice Pansare’s recusal, alleging that the judge had been a member of the society and had earlier been empanelled as its lawyer.
