A bench of Telangana High Court on Friday lost its cool at B Balamukunda Rao, an advocate who was moving a suo motu contempt case hearing. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji took objection to his unjust behaviour and disrespect for the court.
The High Court earlier issued a suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against the advocate for sending a contempt notice to Justice P Madhavi Devi, a sitting judge of the court, in which he sought a response from her within a week and threatened to take punitive action against her.
The notice was given to the judge while she was hearing a batch of RTI and Tourism department concerns, saying that the judge refused to read the judgment and instead humiliated him by asking inappropriate questions.
Advocate General BS Prasad informed that the High Court had previously initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Balamukund Rao for throwing papers on the floor while arguing his case, and that he had also filed a contempt case against a sitting judge of the High Court. Following up on the facts, the Chief Justice stated that he had never experienced such an odd attitude of an advocate issuing a notice to a sitting judge and asking for a response.
The court further ruled that it was a matter of criminal contempt and that strict action can be taken against Balamukund Rao, the advocate. Showing pity on him, the court ordered him to make an affidavit expressing an unconditional apology and withdraw the notice addressed to the sitting judge in a week’s time, and adjourned the case for two weeks.