Man appears semi-naked at High Court hearing, gets notice

On Tuesday, a division bench of the Karnataka HC headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi directed the issuance of notice to a man who allegedly joined a videoconference case hearing in a semi-naked condition.

The incident took place during the hearing of pleas in the sex-for-job case involving Ex-Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi. Senior Lawyer Indira Jaising, appearing for the complainant, brought the conduct of the man, identified as Sridhar Bhat, to the notice of the chief justice & urged him to take strong action against Bhat.

She told the Court it was very offensive for a woman to see a man without clothes in a courtroom. “It seems like he is bathing before the court & in front of me,” Jaising said, adding that she did not know who the person was.

However, the bench asked whether the person was a lawyer as they couldn’t see him on screen.

In the interregnum, another advocate confirmed to the court what Jaising said was true & said that he too could see the scantily clad man.

Though the Court staff tried to call him, the alleged offender didn’t respond.

As the hearing ended, Jaising again urged the Court to take strong action against what she deemed tantamount to contempt of Court. The chief justice subsequently directed issuance of notice to the person.

Jaising said she would file a contempt petition seeking action against the man.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Source Link