A day after a judge of the Gujarat High Court apologised for his outburst against his woman colleague on the bench, the High Court has asked YouTube to remove the videos of the apology claiming copyright violation, The Indian Express has learnt. On October 23, Justice Biren Vaishnav, the fourth senior most judge of the High Court upbraided his colleague, Justice Mauna Bhatt, for voicing a difference of opinion in a batch of tax cases. With the Gujarat HC live-streaming its proceedings, a video of the incident was widely shared on social media. The HC has now pulled down the clip of that exchange from its archives. However, while Justice Vaishnav’s apology on October 25 is still available on the HC website, the High Court has asked YouTube to take down videos of the judge’s apology. An official of the Gujarat HC registry confirmed to The Indian Express such notices were sent out. It is learnt that following YouTube’s communication, several websites removed the video saying it was "no longer available due to a copyright claim by Gujarat High Court.” The Gujarat HC was the first High Court to live-telecast its proceedings beginning in the Covid pandemic in 2020. The exchange between the judges was related to income tax cases where the department had issued notices to reopen assessment for the last six years. While Justice Vaishnav dictated orders allowing the tax officials to proceed with re-assessment with a condition that the final assessment order will not be framed without the prior permission of the Court, Justice Bhatt was seen as replying to him. “Then you differ, yaar. Then you differ. You have differed in one, differ in the other,” Justice Vaishnav said. When Justice Bhatt responded that “it is not the question of differing…,” Justice Vaishnav cut her off and asked her to pass a separate differing order. “Then don’t murmur. Then you pass a separate order,” Justice Vaishnav said. He then walked off and said that the bench will not take up any other matters for the day. On October 25, Justice Vaishnav, before the day’s hearings began, apologised: “Before we begin the session, what happened on Monday shouldn’t have happened, I was wrong. I’m sorry for that and we begin a new session. It shouldn’t have happened, I don’t know, I was wrong.”
