Supreme Court upholds RK Anands conviction Accepts unconditional apology but no jail term

The Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of former Senior Advocate and ex-Rajya Sabha member, R K Anand on contempt of court charges for influencing a witness in BMW hit-and-run case in which he represented the accused. However, the three-judge bench comprising of Justices G.S. Singhvi, Aftab Alam and CK Prasad refused to award him any jail term..The Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of former Senior Advocate and ex-Rajya Sabha member, R K Anand on contempt of court charges for influencing a witness in BMW hit-and-run case in which he represented the accused. However, the three-judge bench comprising of Justices G.S. Singhvi, Aftab Alam and CK Prasad refused to award him any jail term..The Supreme Court has also accepted his unconditional apology and his offer to provide free legal aid for one year..The Court observed that, “We feel that no useful purpose will be served by sending the contemnor to jail. On the contrary, by keeping him out and making him do the things that he has undertaken to do would serve a useful social purpose.”.The Court in its 9-page judgment has directed that, “The contemnor shall place his professional services at the disposal of the Delhi Legal Services Authority. The Delhi Legal Services Authority shall keep a record of all the cases assigned to the contemnor and the result/progress made in those cases”..The Court further directed that, “At the end of the year, the Delhi Legal Services Authority shall submit a report to this Court in regard to all the cases done by the contemnor at its instance, which shall be placed before the Judges for perusal”..Earlier, Anand had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court in the course of his appeal against the Delhi High Court’s August 2008 decision, inter alia, to strip him of his senior advocate designation..As per the affidavit, Anand has agreed to not only donate Rs.21 lakh to the Bar Council of India (BCI) for the establishment of a computer centre or a library, but he has also agreed to provide pro bono legal services to the “poor and needy persons”..Anand and Public Prosecutor I.U. Khan, had been caught on camera in a sting operation conducted by NDTV, when they were trying to convince chief witness Sunil Kulkarni to withdraw his statement. The Delhi High Court had, in August 2008, declared the both lawyers as guilty of contempt of court and had imposed a 4-month ban from practicing.