BENGALURU: With a warning that he should be careful in future, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday dropped the proceedings against Sridhar N Bhatta considering the unconditional apology tendered by him after he was seen semi-naked for 20 minutes while senior advocate Indira Jaising was arguing on behalf of the victim of the sex CD scandal, allegedly involving former minister Ramesh Jarakiholi, through video conference.
On November 30, 2021 during the hearing, senior advocate Indira Jaising told the court that a man, who joined the video conference on Zoom with his name as ‘Sridhar Bhat SDMC Ujire’, was found bathing. Hence, the court directed the registry to retrieve the data and issued a notice to him.
When the matter was taken up for hearing by the division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj on Thursday, an affidavit dated January 1, 2022 filed by Sridhar Bhatta was placed before the court, in response to the notice issued to him after the incident.
Then the court asked Indira Jaising whether it should go ahead with proceedings against him or drop them, as he has submitted the affidavit tendering an unconditional apology. She submitted that she doesn't want any further proceedings and left it to the discretion of the court.
Thereafter the court noted that a notice was issued to Sridhar Bhatta who had interrupted the court proceedings and appeared before the court without proper dress. Pursuant to the notice, he has tendered his unconditional apology on an affidavit. He also submitted that his act was unintentional and he is extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to all the participants. He also submitted that he has realised his mistake and undertakes that he will not commit any such mistake in future, the court said.
Considering the unconditional apology on the affidavit submitted by Bhatta, "We drop the proceedings against him at this stage. However with the observation that Bhatta should be careful in future," the court observed.