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Journalism of Courage
A five-judge bench of the Jharkhand High Court on Friday heard the contempt proceedings initiated against an advocate after his heated exchange with a judge on the previous day.
The bench, comprising the chief justice, eventually directed Tewari to file his reply within three weeks, sources said.
A hearing on October 16 saw heated exchanges between the high court judge and an advocate. According to sources, during the hearing, Justice Rajesh Kumar’s “ordinary” remark against the advocate led the latter to respond sharply. In a video clip that subsequently went viral, Mahesh Tewari can be heard saying: “The country is burning. The country is burning with the judiciary.”
The clip, taken from a live stream of the proceedings, shows the judge objecting to the manner in which the lawyer was presenting his argument, to which the advocate responded: “I will argue in my own way… Don’t try to humiliate anyone… Don’t cross the limit.”
The argument continued until several lawyers, including Jharkhand State Bar Council Chairperson Rajendra Krishna, intervened and tried to defuse the situation. The link to the live stream was eventually taken down after it went viral.
When contacted, Krishna downplayed the incident, saying it was “not serious.”
“Nothing happened. It was just a normal argument between a judge and a lawyer. These things keep happening in court. If a lawyer says something, the judge responds, that’s all. There’s nothing more to it,” he told The Indian Express on the day of the argument.
The Indian Express has tried to reach out to Tewari for a response.
