The Supreme Court on Thursday sought clarification from the defendants after hearing on a contempt of court application filed against the Kantipur daily.

Bishwonath Poudel, deputy spokesperson for the SC, said the court has demanded written clarification against the charges. A case was filed in the apex court on Tuesday claiming that a news report on senior most SC Justice Gopal Parajuli’s qualification records had defamed the court.

Chairman and Managing Director of Kantipur Publications Kailash Sirohiya, Director Swastika Sirohiya, Kantipur daily Editor-in-Chief Sudheer Sharma and journalist Krishna Gyawali have been made defendants in the case. Advocate Santosh Bhandari had filed the lawsuit claiming that the news report published in the national daily defamed the court and the justice, who is now the acting chief justice.

During the hearing, Advocate Bhandari argued that the news report of Kantipur defamed the apex court. Other advocates argued that the publication had not apologised for the news.

Kantipur daily, a sister publication of The Kathmandu Post, had run a news report on April 24 stating that the archive of the senior most justice’s certificates was not found to have been maintained by the concerned authorities.