Court On Its Own Motion v. Vipin Chaudhary Advocate And ORS.

$~1 *

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

+ CONT.CAS.(CRL) 3/2024 COURT ON ITS OWN MOTION ..... Petitioner Through:

versus VIPIN CHAUDHARY ADVOCATE AND ORS. .... Respondents Through:

Mr.

Puneet Mittal, Senior Advocate with Mr.

Rependra Pratap Singh and Mr.

Amit Basoya, Advocates for R-1 & 2

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURESH KUMAR KAIT HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANOJ JAIN

O R D E R

% 06.05.2024 1.

Pursuant to order dated 01.03.2024, Mr. Vinod Sharma, Advocate, President of Saket Bar Association has handed over reply in Court today. Same is taken on record.

2.

In reply, it is mentioned that after going through the relevant CCTV footage of camera No.14 four Advocates, namely, Mr. Vijay Pratap Singh, Mr. Kapil tanwar, Mr. Sunil Chauhan and Mr. Pawan Gupta, are seen passing through the corridor in front of Court Room No.511, Saket Court Complex, New Delhi between 12:17:32 PM till 12:17:50 PM. Along with the above-named four Advocates, there was a one more Advocate whose identity could not be established as his face was not visible in the CCTV footage.

CONT.CAS.(CRL) 3/2024 The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 08/05/2024 at 12:36:30

3.

It is also stated in the reply that no voice is audible in the CCTV footage and, therefore, it cannot be ascertained whether the aforementioned five Advocates had made any contemptuous remarks against the judicial officer or not.

4.

SI Lal Bahadur had earlier stated before this Court on 02.04.2024 that on 23.02.2024, contemnors Vipin Chaudhary and Gaurav Sharma were neither present inside nor outside the court room. 5.

Be that as it may, fact remains that in view of material on record, it is not possible to identify as to who had used the alleged contemptuous words. As noted above, CCTV footage does not contain any audio. The concerned learned Judicial Officer heard some words while holding the court but these utterances were made by someone who was outside the court room.

The video footage shows presence of many Advocates outside his court at that point of time but in the absence of audio, it is not possible to attribute such remarks to anyone, on the basis of guess work alone.

6.

Therefore, we hereby close the present contempt proceedings and discharge the contemnors.

7.

Accordingly, the present contempt petition stands disposed of. SURESH KUMAR KAIT, J MANOJ JAIN, J MAY 6, 2024/rk CONT.CAS.(CRL) 3/2024 The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 08/05/2024 at 12:36:30