The Gujarat High Court
Credit: PTI File Photo
Ahmedabad: Refusing to accept his unconditional apology, the Gujarat High Court on Monday ordered the Surat resident, who was seen relieving himself while appearing virtually in court proceedings, to deposit Rs 1 lakh.
In a similar case, senior advocate Bhaskar Tanna who was seen drinking from a beer mug in the virtual proceedings tendered his unconditional apology while stating that it was "unintentional."
A division bench of justice AS Supehia and R T Vachhani was hearing the suo motu contempt cases initiated against the two. During the hearing, Tanna suggested to the bench that a mechanism should be devised so that the control of the virtual proceeding remains with the court master and not with the lawyer or litigants who appear virtually. He said that the Supreme Court follows such practice in order to avoid such incidents.
Justice Supehia remarked "We are only concerned with the sanctity and the majesty of the court." In its order the court noted the suggestions and adjourned the case for further hearing on July 22.
In the case of Surat resident Abdul Samad, the bench ordered him to deposit Rs 1 lakh by July 22 while it refused to accept unconditional apology. The court also refused to grant him further time.
In the case of advocate Tanna, the High Court termed it as "an outrageous and glaring conduct" while taking suo motu cognisance of the incident. The order stated that "the video clip of live streaming proceedings, which is being widely circulated in social media, shows his contemptuous behaviour of talking on the phone and also having a drink in a beer mug while attending the court proceedings. Thus, the indecent act of Tanna, has very wide ramification since it has travelled beyond the precincts of this prestigious Institution."
The division also took suo motu cognisance of Samad's case while saying that the video showed him sitting on a toilet and relieving himself during the ongoing proceedings. "The infamous video tarnishing the image of this Court is widely circulated in social media, and is required to be immediately banned and deleted," the bench stated in its order.