2006 Tis Hazari Violence: Delhi High Court discharges former DHCBA President Rajiv Khosla, others in contempt of court case

The Delhi High court on Friday discharged around twelve lawyers including former Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) President Rajiv Khosla in a criminal contempt of court case related to the violence and ransacking at the Tis Hazari court in 2006..Former Delhi Bar Association (DBA) President Sanjeev Nasiar was also discharged in the case.A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul, Rajnish Bhatnagar and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta pronounced the order today after having reserved it on October 14, 2022.The Court said that an examination of the video footage of the vandalism affirms that there is no evidence linking the damage caused to the courtrooms with the protest by the advocates/alleged contemnors. "Moreover, these actions cannot be directly attributed to the alleged Contemnors. Consequently, the material including the subject videos fail to provide any direct evidence connecting the damage allegedly caused to court rooms with the Advocates' protest," the Court observed. It noted that the videos do not furnish any evidence of advocates manhandling their colleagues, obstructing the administration of justice, or supporting any other allegation made against them. "Hence, there exists no substantial evidence to establish obstruction of justice, acts of manhandling, or destruction of property. Therefore, it cannot be conclusively established that the act of protesting interfered with the administration of justice," the Bench concluded. .In January and February of 2006, lawyers were agitating against shifting of some of the courts from Tis Hazari to Rohini when the protests turned violent. The lawyers hurled chairs, broke computers, and damaged court records in over two dozen courtrooms.A full court of the Delhi High took note of the report filed by the then District Judge SN Dhingra and ordered stern action against the erring lawyers.The Court also took cognisance of the violence and initiated contempt of court proceedings. A total of 25 lawyers were arraigned as alleged contemnors in the case. However, 13 of them were were already discharged earlier. .After considering the evidence, the Bench also highlighted that these contempt proceedings are pending since 2006 and the Sword of Damocles has been hanging for the past 17 years, on the . respondent advocates who have expressed their deep remorse.Therefore, the Court discharges the show cause notices issued to the remaining alleged contemnors. The Court expressed its gratitude to Senior Advocate for having rendered his assistance as the Amicus Curiae in these proceedings. .Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra was assisted by advocates Shubhangi Jain, Yash Giri, Raju and Adityaa. .[Read Judgement]