A lawyer, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment for criminal contempt of court for making “scandalous, unwarranted and baseless imputations” against several judges of the high court and district courts in the national capital, has tendered an unconditional apology to the Delhi High Court.
The lawyer, who is in custody after being held guilty on January 9, submitted before the high court he did not intend to scandalise judges and will exercise caution in future.
He filed an affidavit before a bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Shalinder Kaur tendering an unconditional apology in accordance with the direction of the Supreme Court where he has filed an appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the contempt case.
“Pursuant to the direction passed by the Supreme Court, the contemnor has handed over an affidavit tendering unconditional apology wherein he stated that he had not intended to scandalise a judge and henceforth, he will be taking extra care or will be extra cautious of the said mistake committed by him.
“It is further stated that the mistake being unintentional and for bona-fide need in the pursuit of justice, therefore, this court should have mercy on the contemnor and his family members. Further, in the affidavit, he has undertaken before this court that he shall not commit any such mistake/ error in future. The affidavit is taken on record,” the high court said in an order passed on Tuesday.
The high court said a copy of the order be provided to the contemnor and also directed its registry to send one to the Supreme Court without any delay.
The matter was taken up after the lawyer, who was present in the court in custody, mentioned it for urgent hearing.
Besides sentencing the lawyer to six months in jail, the high court had also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him, and directed that he be taken into custody and handed over to the superintendent of the Tihar jail.
When the lawyer’s plea offering unconditional apology was taken up by the apex court on January 12, it had said his request can be considered if he is inclined to file an unconditional apology on affidavit individually before the judges of the high court and the district judiciary against whom he made the allegations.
The matter is listed before the top court on January 19.
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The lawyer had filed a plea before a single judge of the high court in July 2022 accusing several judges of acting “arbitrarily, whimsically or in a biased manner”. He had also named the judges in his petition.
The single judge bench had then issued a notice of contempt to him and directed that the matter be placed before a division bench.
In its verdict, the division bench of the high court had noted that since the lawyer, who made the contumacious allegations was an officer of the court, it was necessary to check such actions with a “firm hand”.
On being given an opportunity by the high court to apologise for the contemptuous allegations made by him, he refused to do so and stuck to his remarks against the judges of the high court and the district judiciary.
