NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked a Jharkhand-based lawyer to tender an unconditional apology before the high court in suo-motu contempt proceedings which stemmed from a court-room exchange where he allegedly told a judge, “Don’t cross the limit.”
“We deem it appropriate to dispose of the petition, with liberty to the petitioner to submit an affidavit of unconditional apology before the HC, we request the HC to consider the apology sympathetically and pass an order accordingly,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
During the hearing, lawyer of the petitioner told the apex court that he did not mean to disrespect the Judge or obstruct judicial proceedings. “The petitioner is extremely repentent of the incident and is willing to tender unconditional apology,” the lawyer submitted.
After hearing, the top court disposed of the petition, and granted the petitioner, Mahesh Tiwari, the liberty to file an unconditional apology before a five-judge high court bench which had issued contempt notice to him in October last year.
The apex court requested the high court to consider the apology “sympathetically,” as it was hearing the plea against suo-motu criminal contempt by Jharkhand HC against the petitioner, whose video clip showed him getting involved in a heated exchange with a single judge during the court proceedings.
The top court observed that if the petitioner feels that he has done nothing wrong, then he should have the courage to contest, but if he thinks he was wrong, he should apologise.
“The petitioner is a practising lawyer in the HC of Jharkhand. Some unfortunate incident took place in a court of the HC, it was largely reported in social media, and taking cognisance of it, a 5 judge bench has suo motu initiated contempt against the petitioner,” said the CJI.
The lawyer for the petitioner urged the top court to consider the case as it would ruin his career. “He did not mean any disrespect and the issue snowballed after certain clips from the exchange became viral on social media,” the counsel pleaded to the top court for leniency.
The judges also watched the video and said that viral videos of the courtrooms have become a menace now.
Eventually, the court asked the laywer to tender an unconditional apology before the high court in the case.
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