Bombay High Court imposes ₹25,000 costs on lawyers for annexing objectionable photos to petition

The Bombay High Court recently imposed costs of ₹25,000 on lawyers who annexed objectionable photographs to a writ petition filed by them [Jyotsna D’souza vs The State of Maharashtra and Ors.].After coming across such objectionable photographs, a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and SM Modak said that the concerned lawyers had failed to realize that petitions are placed before the registry and get circulated through various departments, thereby, invading privacy of the parties."No sense of proportion or discretion is exercised by the learned Counsel whilst annexing the said photographs. Advocates fail to realize that these petitions are filed/placed before the Registry and get circulated through various departments, exposing the parties involved in the photographs," the 2-page order said.The Court added that it expects all lawyers to exercise discretion while annexing photographs that are highly objectionable as they invade upon privacy of the parties and directed the lawyer to remove the photographs from the petition as well as from its copies served to other parties."We expect, all lawyers/advocates to exercise some discretion and proportion whilst annexing the photographs which are highly objectionable. Annexing such photographs certainly invades upon the privacy of the parties and as such, we direct the counsel for the petitioner, to forthwith remove the said photographs," it stated..The order was passed in a writ petition filed by the wife of the accused seeking to quash the First Information Report and chargesheet filed against her husband booked for allegedly committing rape.For the conduct, the Bench imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on the lawyers for the petitioners and directed them to deposit the amount with the Kirtikar Law Library, located on the second floor of High Court building..Advocates Anand Pandey and Ramesh Tripathi appeared for the petitioner.APP JP Yagnik appeared for Respondent-StateAdvocate Waqar Pathan appeared for one of the respondents.[Read Order]