Heated exchange between Gujarat High Court judges in open court; hearing stopped midway

The Gujarat High Court was recently privy to a heated exchange between two judges in open court over disagreement with respect to a case. .The exchange took place between Justices Biren Vaishnav and Mauna Bhatt on October 23, Monday.Justice Vaishnav, the senior judge on the bench was irked after puisne judge Justice Bhatt seemingly registered her disagreement by murmuring in the senior judge's ears. A video clip of the incident circulating on social media shows Justice Vaishnav passing an order in a matter. Justice Bhatt, however, did not seem to agree with Justice Vaishnav and whispered something to which Justice Vaishnav reacted strongly asking her to pass a "differing order.""You differ yaar. You have differed in one matter, (so) differ here also," Justice Vaishnav told the puisne judge. To this, Justice Bhatt responded, "It isn't a matter of differing..""Then pass a separate order. Do not murmur," said Justice Vaishnav. Justice Vaishnav then rose and left the courtroom stating that the bench would not be hearing any further matters. .[Watch Video Below].Soon after this exchange, the live streamed video of the concerned bench was pulled down from YouTube.Gujarat High Court YouTube channel livestreams hearings of all benches. Further, as per the links made available on YouTube for Wednesday hearings, Justice Vaishnav is not sitting with Justice Bhatt anymore. Instead, the puisne judge has been replaced by Justice Bhargav Karia. However, there is no notification on the High Court website regarding this change in the bench. .A similar incident had transpired in Supreme Court in January 2016 when Justices MY Eqbal and Arun Mishra had an heated argument over a case.

Heated exchange between Gujarat High Court judges in open court; hearing stopped midway

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