UNRULY LAWYER TRIES TO BULLY JUDGE, GETS 3 MONTHS IN JAIL

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday sent an unruly advocate to jail for three months for trying to bully a judicial magistrate in Aurangabad by resorting to public protests and distributing pamphlets containing serious imputations against her.

The division bench of justices TV Nalavade and Vibha Kankanwadi imposed a fine of ₹2,000 on advocate Ravi Tukaram Damodar after convicting him guilty of contempt of court.

In November 2015, Damodar had distributed pamphlets in Marathi, which reflected scurrilous imputations against the judicial magistrate, accusing her of having accepted bribe for issuing decree in a civil matter against his clients. Alleging that the decree was issued on the basis of a fabricated sale deed, he went on a hunger strike in front of the collector’s office at Aurangabad, where banners, reflecting the name of the judicial magistrate with allegations of corruption against her, were put up.

The HC convicted Damodar after noticing that he adopted all tactics to delay execution of the decree against his clients in court. The bench said that these activities of the lawyer and his unruly behaviour, his resorting to agitation of fast unto death “clearly tend to lower the authority and dignity of the court.” It said that “the utterances in the pamphlets, the banner at the site of agitation” and the reply of the lawyer to the show cause notice issued by the court were “insinuation against the Court.”

After issuance of notices for contempt of court, Damodar did not tender an apology to the judicial magistrate or HC. He justified his conduct before the magistrate and his resorting to agitation and display of banners, saying he did it to ensure justice to his clients.