Supreme Court Judges Shocked To See Advocate Shirtless During VC Hearing

During the hearing of the Sudarshan TV case on Monday, the Supreme Court was shocked to see an advocate shirtless in the video conference meeting.

When the session started, the image of a lawyer without shirt flashed on the screen for a few seconds.

Visibly shocked, Justice D Y Chandrachud, the presiding judge of the bench, asked who the advocate was. Though the judge repeated the query two-three times, there was no response, as the lawyer suddenly logged out, probably after realizing the gaffe.

After the case got adjourned, Justice Chandrachud shared his displeasure at the incident with Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta.

"Some counsel appeared without wearing shirt during VC. There has to be some decorum", Justice D Y Chandrachud told the Solicitor General.

"This is very bad", Justice Indu Malhotra, who was also part of the bench, expressed her disgust at the incident.

"'This is something unpardonable", Solicitor General agreed with the judges.

Justice Chandrachud asked the Solicitor General to speak with the lawyer concerned to ensure that the mistake was not repeated. 

The conduct which irked the bench came from the Advocate on Record who filed the intervention application on behalf of OpIndia and others in the case against Sudarshan TV(Firoz Iqbal Khan vs Union of India).

Justice D Y Chandrachud said that such an incident is an affront to the court as even though hearings are happening through VC, the court is a full -fledged regular court and counsels should be extra careful. He further observed that he is not someone who wants to take action in such incidents but lawyers need to be extra cautious when they appear before the court.

Recently, the Gujarat High Court had imposed costs on an advocate who was found smoking during the VC session.

Few months ago, the Rajasthan High Court had reprimanded a lawyer for inappropriately dressed in a baniyan during the VC hearing.