Gujarat HC closes suo motu contempt proceedings against Surat man seen on toilet seat, senior advocate seen ‘drinking’ from beer mug during virtual hearings

The court said that the act of the man for which the contempt proceedings were registered, “…is an act, which lowers the majesty and sanctity of this court. The offending act committed by the contemnor though inadvertently, is of such a high degree that it cannot be ignored. It is contended that there was no ill-intention on behalf of the contemnor to commit such an act. However, we are of the opinion that the proof of mens rea (intention) is excluded by such conduct. No defense is available to the contemnor to plead that such a nature of the act, which bows down the majesty of the court, only for reason that he had no intention to commit such act… The act committed by the contemnor has the tendency to interfere with the administration of justice and also tends to lower the authority and majesty of this court and in fact is a criminal contempt as defined by the Contempt of Courts Act…”

In a separate suo motu contempt proceeding against Senior Advocate Tanna, “for using his phone to talk and drinking from a beer mug” while attending a court proceeding virtually, the court observed that Tanna has been a practicing advocate since 52 years and has submitted an unconditional apology. The court said in the dictated order, “From the report prepared by Registry and on overall appreciation of facts and reading of affidavit of unconditional apology, we find that contemptuous act was committed through an error and Shri Tanna had no intention to wilfully lower down majesty of this court. We accept the unconditional apology tendered by Shri Tanna. Learned senior advocate Mr Tanna has assured that such an error shall not be committed in future”.

Senior advocate Shalin Mehta, appearing for the High Court Registry, submitted that a report has been filed with recommendation that the waiting room for online proceedings should be re-introduced for virtual hearings to allow only participants of a hearing to join when their matter is called out, so that no direct access is given. Mehta informed the court that the suggestion has been submitted and is pending before the full court. The Division Bench of the High Court orally stated that participants of virtual hearings are “dragging the court” to places such as the washroom. “The sanctity of the court, the majesty of the court is absolutely obliterated… That is very serious,” the court remarked orally.

The Surat man, who was personally present in court on Tuesday, had appeared in the court of Justice Nirzar Desai by way of virtual proceedings on June 20, in the hearing for quashing a case in which he was a complainant. Senior Advocate Bhaskar Tanna was attending the virtual proceedings on June 26 in the court of Justice Sandeep Bhatt.