Mumbai, Aug. 17: Raj Thackeray faces criminal contempt proceedings for warning lawyers against defending the accused in the July Mumbai blasts case.

Finding a prima facie case of contempt of court, advocate-general Ravi Kadam has given his consent to an appeal by city lawyers to proceed against the estranged nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. The lawyers had argued that preventing them from representing the accused amounted to interference with the process of justice

“Yes, I have given my consent to launching contempt proceedings yesterday. Now it will be up to the court to look into it,” Kadam said.

Under the Contempt of Court Act, consent has to be obtained from the advocate-general of Maharashtra before proceedings can be initiated.

Mahrukh Adenwala, representing human rights organisations like the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers and the Committee for People’s Democratic Rights, had sent the appeal last month. “Now that the advocate-general has given his consent, we can initiate criminal contempt proceedings by filing a petition before Bombay High Court by next week,” Adenwala said.

If found guilty, Thackeray, who heads Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, could face up to six months imprisonment and/or a fine of Rs 2,000.

Thackeray’s warning to lawyers had come at his party’s public meeting to pay homage to the victims of the July 11 bombings.

Following the threat of protests against anyone defending the suspects, defence lawyer Niteen Pradhan, who represented several accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case, withdrew from the trial proceedings. No lawyer came forward to defend the eight suspects arrested for alleged links to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and for their role in the July train blasts.

Except one, the six held for alleged links with the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) also went unrepresented when they were produced before the local courts for remand. Now, however, lawyers are coming forward to take up their cases. Farhana Shah, who is Sanjay Dutt’s lawyer in the Bombay blasts case, is defending Danish Khan, a journalist held for distributing Islamic literature.

Kadam granted his consent in a three-page note to the state home department. He said judges, lawyers and witnesses were limbs of the judicial proceedings and any interference with any of these elements amounted to interference with the process of justice and denying the accused a fair trial.

Thackeray was unavailable for comment, but his party said it would stand by its leader’s statement.

Shishir Shinde, a spokesperson for Navnirman Sena, said: “No other issue is more important than the country’s security. We will put up a legal fight if contempt proceedings are launched against Rajsaheb.”