Bombay High Court Issues Contempt Notice to Maharashtra Law Secretary

The Bombay High Court in Mumbai has issued a notice to Maharashtra’s law and judiciary department secretary and senior legal adviser, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. The notice follows what the court termed an “outrageous”, “unpardonable”, and “unwarranted outburst” in a packed courtroom.

A division bench comprising Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata observed that the senior official engaged in the outburst while blaming the court administration for failing to fill up vacant judicial posts. The incident took place during the hearing of an interim plea in a public interest litigation, where the court noted it was “confronted with a matter of serious concern.”

In their order dated September 1, the judges noted that the official’s “aggressive demeanour deliberately displayed in full public view while attempting to justify the stand in his affidavits, not only scandalised the court” but also “undermined and attempted to lower its authority.”

The bench firmly rejected the idea that such conduct could be smoothed over with an apology. Justices Gadkari and Khata noted that a judicial officer cannot display such behaviour in open court and later expect to be pardoned through an apology in any manner or form.

The court observed that permitting such conduct would send a deeply troubling message to the public that an individual could commit an otherwise inexcusable act with impunity in open court and then sheepishly, in a theatrical manner and without meaning a word, tender an apology through a Senior Counsel or the Advocate General to absolve himself of an act that is ex facie contemptuous.