'It Has Hurt Everyone': Delhi High Court Strongly Condemns Shoe Attack On CJI Gavai, Says Appropriate Measures Must

The Delhi High Court today remarked that incidents like the one where a lawyer hurled a shoe at Chief Justice of India BR Gavai in open court must "not only be deprecated but appropriate measures need to be taken".

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela made the remark while hearing a PIL seeking guidelines to take down videos of the incident circulating on social media.

The plea has been filed by one Tejaswi Mohan.

As the Petitioner's counsel said that the videos of the incident are still being circulated on social media, the CJ remarked,

“We share your concern, perhaps with more intensity. It has hurt not only the members of the bar but everybody. It is not the question of an individual. Such incident should not only be deprecated but appropriate measures need to be taken.”

ASG Chetan Sharma appearing for the Centre apprised the Court about pendency of a plea filed by SCBA before the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against the lawyer in question.

He said that while he shared concerns with the petitioner, it would be appropriate for the petitioner to approach the Supreme Court in the pending proceedings. “If that is pending before the Supreme Court, it is a Supreme Court centric matter,” he said.

Referring to a newspaper report, Sharma said that apart from issuance of guidelines, the Supreme Court might also consider passing a john doe order to prevent such incidents.

On this, CJ said, “As per the news report, the Supreme Court has also said that it will consider passing john doe order and issue guidelines to prevent such incidents. And if you intervene there, you may always press for issuance of order or directions to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry or the government agencies to frame some guidelines or protocols… You may apprise the Supreme Court of this matter being filed and seek intervention there. Otherwise we will entertain.”

“We are only thinking because of duplicity of proceedings… wont it be appropriate? We keep this writ petition pending. You seek intervention there and apprise the SC about this… We can see the Supreme Court intends to enlarge the scope of the matter. Just to avoid duplicity of proceedings…we would be happy to issue directions as prayed,” he added.

Accordingly, the counsel for the petitioner said that he will seek intervention in the pending proceedings before the Supreme Court.

The matter will now be taken up on December 04.

A week after the incident, the Attorney General for India R Venkataramani granted consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against the lawyer- Advocate Rakesh Kishore.

Title: Tejasvi Mohan v. UOI & Ors