The contempt case initiated by the Supreme Court against an Advocate-on-Record witnessed a high voltage hearing today, with the Court standing firm with its decision to proceed against the lawyer, should he be found at fault..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul appeared unflinched, even as senior lawyers including SCBA President RS Suri and Secretary Gaurav Bhatia turned up to apologise for the conduct of the accused lawyer..When the hearing began today, the accused lawyer submitted his affidavit tendering an apology. But the Bench was not satisfied with the same:.“Either there is a genuine mistake by the Registry in which case we will fix it and let you go. But if you are wrong, we won’t let you go”..It also came to light that the accused lawyer had been replaced by another AoR in the matter, but he had reappeared in the matter on Friday last week when he made the controversial mentioning..Noting this, Justice Khehar thundered,.“First, you were the AoR in the case. Then you were replaced. Then the matter was listed on April 7. You then enter on April 7 and allege that the Registry manipulated and changed the Bench..When a Bench is changed, I do it based on inputs. So when you came and made this allegation in the very first case at 10.30 AM on Friday, I was wonder struck. .But then we found out that the Bench had not changed, it was posted before the same Bench. There was no change in the Bench at all..So, you were engaged just to enter and say this. This is manipulated and planned.”.Senior Counsel including Sidharth Luthra and Colin Gonsalves and the SCBA’s top office bearers apologised on behalf of the AoR..Justice Khehar, however, seemed to be in no mood to concede..“This attitude has emerged that you people can shout at us for anything. We are going to stop it. We won’t let you go. This is motivated and planned, to point an accusing finger at us.”.The Court has now called for the files of the SLP in question and listed the matter for hearing on Monday next week..The case began on Friday last week when the lawyer in question alleged “manipulation” by the Supreme Court Registry in the listing of a case. The lawyer stated in open Court during mentioning that the matter was to go before a regular Bench and there was no need to list it before a Special Bench..The Bench examined it’s earlier order and had a short discussion before a very upset Justice Khehar had said:.“There is a judicial order. You people think you can tell anything here. Are you not ashamed of yourself. What nonsense is this. We are going to issue contempt notice right away. If you cannot satisfy us you will go straight to jail. File an affidavit in one hour in reply to the contempt notice”..Though the lawyer tendered an apology the very same day, the Court was not satisfied and had listed the matter as a contempt case today..Disclaimer: The name of the lawyer has been withheld.
The contempt case initiated by the Supreme Court against an Advocate-on-Record witnessed a high voltage hearing today, with the Court standing firm with its decision to proceed against the lawyer, should he be found at fault..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul appeared unflinched, even as senior lawyers including SCBA President RS Suri and Secretary Gaurav Bhatia turned up to apologise for the conduct of the accused lawyer..When the hearing began today, the accused lawyer submitted his affidavit tendering an apology. But the Bench was not satisfied with the same:.“Either there is a genuine mistake by the Registry in which case we will fix it and let you go. But if you are wrong, we won’t let you go”..It also came to light that the accused lawyer had been replaced by another AoR in the matter, but he had reappeared in the matter on Friday last week when he made the controversial mentioning..Noting this, Justice Khehar thundered,.“First, you were the AoR in the case. Then you were replaced. Then the matter was listed on April 7. You then enter on April 7 and allege that the Registry manipulated and changed the Bench..When a Bench is changed, I do it based on inputs. So when you came and made this allegation in the very first case at 10.30 AM on Friday, I was wonder struck. .But then we found out that the Bench had not changed, it was posted before the same Bench. There was no change in the Bench at all..So, you were engaged just to enter and say this. This is manipulated and planned.”.Senior Counsel including Sidharth Luthra and Colin Gonsalves and the SCBA’s top office bearers apologised on behalf of the AoR..Justice Khehar, however, seemed to be in no mood to concede..“This attitude has emerged that you people can shout at us for anything. We are going to stop it. We won’t let you go. This is motivated and planned, to point an accusing finger at us.”.The Court has now called for the files of the SLP in question and listed the matter for hearing on Monday next week..The case began on Friday last week when the lawyer in question alleged “manipulation” by the Supreme Court Registry in the listing of a case. The lawyer stated in open Court during mentioning that the matter was to go before a regular Bench and there was no need to list it before a Special Bench..The Bench examined it’s earlier order and had a short discussion before a very upset Justice Khehar had said:.“There is a judicial order. You people think you can tell anything here. Are you not ashamed of yourself. What nonsense is this. We are going to issue contempt notice right away. If you cannot satisfy us you will go straight to jail. File an affidavit in one hour in reply to the contempt notice”..Though the lawyer tendered an apology the very same day, the Court was not satisfied and had listed the matter as a contempt case today..Disclaimer: The name of the lawyer has been withheld.