MADURAI: After the judicial proceedings of Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court were illegally recorded and circulated on social media, advocate V Panneer Selvam lodged a complaint with the additional registrar general of the bench, seeking action against the accused.
The petitioner said the division bench of Justices R Subramanian and L Victoria Gowri was hearing a batch of appeals and petitions on September 26, and during the course of hearing, the court directed the registry to place the matter before the chief justice to pass appropriate orders in the case. Moreover, the appellants, the TNPSC, filed a memo regarding the submission made before the court by the senior counsel to eschew the observations and to list the writ appeals before the same division bench for final disposal.
While the matter stood thus, a partially edited and tampered video recording of the court proceedings was circulated on social media. Those persons can be easily identified and the account holders who have uploaded the illegal videos must be punished. Such videos cannot be circulated in an unlawful and illicit manner.
Apart from that, the account holders/service providers must be directed to remove the tampered videos from social media. This has affected the majesty of the court, its reputation and professional environment of advocates/senior advocates, he said.
The memo filed by the secretary of TNPSC, on behalf of the appellants, said that the senior advocate only intended to place the correct and true facts before the court and at no point of time recusal was sought. Upon learning of the displeasure of the bench, the senior advocate clarified that there was no intention to cause disrespect or ask for recusal. This was never the intention of the commission, the standing counsel or senior advocate. It also submitted that the commission is prepared to conduct the batch of cases before the same bench.