Gauhati High Court issues contempt notice to Bar president for inaction against lawyers who vilified judge

The Gauhati High Court on Friday issued notice under the Contempt of Courts Act to three lawyers including Gauhati High Court Bar Association President (GHCBA) Kamal Nayan Choudhury in the petitions moved by Advocate General (AG) Devajit Saikia..The case was initiated against the Bar president for not taking action against the two other lawyers who had made comments against a sitting judge of the High Court.Saikia's petitions alleged that advocate Pallavi Talukdar and Senior Advocate Anil Kumar Bhattacharya in "connivance" with Choudhury last month made comments against Justice Suman Shyam during a protest against the proposal to shift the High Court building from its existing site. The Bench of Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice N Unni Krishnan Nair said the statements made by Talukdar and Bhattacharya were not only derogatory but contemptuous too."The tendency of criticizing the Judges as well as the Courts as a whole is rising and it is more unfortunate when such criticism is made by a section of the legal fraternity, who are regularly appearing in the Courts. It is high time to take notice of the said conduct of the advocates and measures are required to be initiated to curb this tendency," it added.The Court also ordered takedown of the news videos which reported the statements of these lawyers. "Considering the provisions of the Information and Technology Act, 2002 and the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rule, 2011, we deem it appropriate to direct the “YouTube” as well as “Prag News” to remove the videos containing the alleged statements made by the contemnors, from their channels forthwith. The Union of India and the State of Assam are directed to ensure that this direction be implemented forthwith.".The Court remarked that millions of the people of the country have "immense faith in the judiciary" as a whole and not in the judges or an individual judge. The tendency of ignoring the attempts on the part of any person, which amounts to scandalizing the Court or lowering the authority of the Court, would result in erosion of faith of the millions of people in the judicial institutions, it added."It is not only the responsibility of the Bench to ensure that the dignity and majesty of the Courts are to be protected but the advocates and the Associations representing them are also equally responsible for protecting the dignity and the majesty of the Courts. Needless to say that the behavior of an advocate having a good standing in the Bar, which tends to lowering the authority of the Court, gives a wrong impression in the minds of the young advocates as well as public at large," the Court said.The Bench also called it unfortunate that till date, the Bar Council of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim had not initiated any action against the advocates..The controversy has its origins in a protest held by the Bar Association last month against the proposed shifting of the High Court. As per AG Saikia's petitions, Bhattacharya had told the media that Justice Shyam "behaves like a CID" and asked "‘why all the time Justice Suman Shyam has to be friendly to the Chief Justice. What is the reason".On the other hand, Talukdar in her media interview is stated to have said that she had nicknamed Justice Shyam as ‘chika’ (rat) and that he was "managing the Registry" when it comes to listing of cases.The High Court on April 3 had issued a press release to condemn the verbal attacks made against Justice Shyam. GHCBA had distanced itself from the comments made by its members but the High Court in the press release questioned the lack of action against them..Trouble in Gauhati High Court over HC relocation; AG files contempt petition against Bar President, lawyers.In an interim order on the AG's petitions, the Court said the Bar has right to protest against an issue which they perceive to be adverse to their interest but such protest cannot be used as a platform to scandalize the Courts, which results in lowering their authority.It added that since the sit-in-demonstration was organized under the aegis of the Bar Association, it was the responsibility of the bar body to check that any of its member does not use the platform provided to them to appease his or her personal vendetta or to scandalize the Courts."True it is that the representatives of the Bar Association cannot be held vicariously liable for the conduct of an individual Member of the Association but disregard to their moral responsibility, they or the Bar Association as a whole cannot shrug off their responsibility simply by distancing themselves from the derogatory remarks made by its Members terming them as their personal views," the Court further said..The Court also noted that apart from distancing from the views expressed by the two lawyers, the Bar Association had not condemned their conduct. Accordingly, it decided to issue notice to Choudhury as well."In such circumstances, the leader of the Bar Association cannot escape from his responsibility of maintaining decorum during a demonstration organized by the Bar Association simply by saying that he is not responsible for the derogatory remarks made by any of the Member of the Association during the sit-in-demonstration, though they were made with the intention to scandalize the Court or tends to lowering the authority of the Court," the Court reasoned..Pertinently, a day after the Court had reserved its order, Choudhury on April 9 had mentioned the matter and sought Justice Nair's recusal from the matter. It was Choudhury's submission that Justice Nair had liked an online post about criminal action being taken against lawyers..Dealing with the objection, the Court said the liking of the post does not reflect any bias. It also noted that names of the office bearers of the Bar Association were not mentioned in the post."Even though if it is liked by one of us, it cannot be a reason to recuse from the hearing of the case as it hardly reflects any bias on the part of the Judge. The apprehension raised by Mr. Choudhury is imaginary.".The Court then proceeded to issue notices to the lawyers and listed the matter for hearing on May 13. Meanwhile, soon after the order was passed, the Bar Association issued a notice calling for an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting on April 23. The agenda is as under,"Discussion regarding present situation arising out of the order dated 11.04.2025 passed by the Hon'ble Gauhati High Court in Contempt Case (Crl.) Nos.01/2025 and 02/2025 respectively.".Advocate General Devajit Saikia appeared in person. Senior Advocate Kamal Nayan Choudhury also appeared in person.[Read Order]