Delhi High Court convicts lawyer who came to court drunk, threatened judge

The Delhi High Court recently convicted an advocate for criminal contempt of court after it was found that he came to court in an intoxicated state and threatened a judicial officer [Court on its own motion v Sanjay Rathod (Advocate)]..A Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma noted that appearing before the court in an inebriated state is contempt on the face of it and the manner in which the lawyer addressed the judge was completely unacceptable.“A perusal of the language used by the Respondent-Contemnor [Rathod] qua the Judicial Officer would leave no iota of doubt that it would fall in the definition of criminal contempt as defined under the Contempt of Courts Act. The language used by the Contemnor in fact has scandalised the Court and such conduct also leads to interference in the administration of justice. The words spoken are foul and abusive. Moreover, considering the fact that the Judicial Officer presiding the Court was a lady Judicial Officer and the manner in which the Contemnor, i.e., Respondent herein, has addressed the said Judicial Officer is completely unacceptable. Appearing before a Court in a drunken state is also unpardonable. The same is contempt on the face of the Court. Thus, this Court has no doubt in holding that the Respondent is guilty of criminal contempt,” the Court observed.The Bench noted that on these same allegations, an FIR was registered against Rathod and he has spent five months in jail and, therefore, did not impose any further sentence.“The Court is in fact inclined to punish the Respondent for criminal contempt. However, on these very allegations and happenings, since the Respondent has already served a sentence of over 5 months in FIR no. 0885/2015, further sentence is not imposed on the Respondent. The period already undergone by the respondent herein is held as the punishment for the present criminal contempt.”.The incident dates back to 2015 when the lawyer, Sanjay Rathod, appeared before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate (Traffic) of the Karkardooma Court for an accused driver.The matter was taken up in the morning and adjourned to the next day. Later in day, Rathod appeared before the Court and started shouting at the judge. As per the trial court order, he was drunk and used foul language against the judge as well.An FIR was registered and Rathod spent five months in jail.The Metropolitan Magistrate also sent a communication to the High Court after which a suo motu contempt of court case was registered..Advocate Vrinda Grover appeared as amicus curiae in the matter. She was assisted by advocates Sautik Banerjee and Devika Tulsiani.Senior Advocate Rakesh Tiku with advocates Anil Kumar Varshneya and Sandeep Kumar represented Sanjay Rathod. .[Read Order]