Viral courtroom exchange: Supreme Court asks lawyer to apologise to Jharkhand HC — what it said | India News
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked a Jharkhand-based lawyer to tender an unconditional apology before the Jharkhand High Court over a viral courtroom exchange in which he allegedly told a judge, “Don’t cross the limit”.A bench of chief justice Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the lawyer to submit an affidavit of unconditional apology before a five-judge bench of the high court that had issued a contempt notice against him in October last year. The Supreme Court also told the high court to consider the apology “sympathetically”.The top court took note of the lawyer’s challenge to the high court’s suo motu contempt proceedings. While hearing the matter, the bench recorded that the lawyer had explained he did not intend to disrespect the judge or obstruct judicial proceedings. His senior counsel told the court that the lawyer was “extremely repentant” and willing to offer an unconditional apology.“Having regard to the above-mentioned stand, we dispose of this with liberty to the petitioner to submit an affidavit of unconditional apology before the high court. We request the high court to consider the apology sympathetically,” the bench said in its order.However, the judges also expressed concern over the lawyer’s conduct. The chief justice questioned why the lawyer could not explain his position directly before the high court judges and described his behaviour as defiant. CJI Surya Kant remarked, ““Why cannot he explain this before the judges? This is his obstinate character. Let him face them… let him explain. If he wants to show eyes there… let him show and then we will see. We know how to deal with this.Justice Joymalya Bagchi also spoke about declining courtroom decorum, saying friction was increasingly becoming a matter of “professional pride” at different levels of the judiciary.During the hearing, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for the lawyer, said live-streamed court proceedings had created new challenges and that even a notice could damage a lawyer’s career.
What unfolded earlier
The controversy began on October 16 last year during a hearing before justice Rajesh Kumar of the Jharkhand High Court. The lawyer was representing a client seeking restoration of an electricity connection. Justice Kumar reportedly made observations about the lawyer’s manner of argument and asked the chairman of the Jharkhand state bar council to take cognisance of his conduct. The lawyer then approached the bench, said he would argue “in his own way”, and told the judge, “Don’t cross the limit”.Clips from the live-streamed proceedings later went viral on social media. A five-judge bench of the Jharkhand high court, led by then chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, subsequently took suo motu cognisance of the matter and issued a contempt notice to the lawyer.
