Karnataka High Court drops contempt proceedings against lawyer who created ruckus in court, imposes ₹2 lakh costs

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dropped criminal contempt proceedings against a lawyer who tendered an unconditional apology for creating a ruckus in a district court and used unparliamentary language for the High Court’s Chief Justice [High Court of Karnataka v KN Jagadish Kumar]..A bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Ashok S Kinagi dropped the proceedings subject to ₹2 lakhs in costs being deposited by the lawyer, one Jagadish Kumar.“It is made clear that the order of discharge would be made operational only after the accused submitting receipts for having deposited the costs”, the order read..The bench directed that out of the costs imposed ₹1 lakh was to be deposited to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, ₹50,000 to the Bengaluru Advocates’ Association and the remaining ₹50,000 to the Karnataka Advocates’ Clerks Benevolent Trust.“The above referred costs shall be deposited within a period of two weeks’ from today”, the court further directed..The contempt case arose from an incident that took place in February this year, where the lawyer was said to have created a ruckus at the City Civil Court.Notice was issued to him by the High Court on 17 March. Kumar tendered an unconditional apology to the court while assuring that he would maintain dignified behaviour in and out of court going forward. He also stated that he would not do anything to undermine the dignity and prestige of the judiciary."I sincerely repent for my behaviour that led to incidents that took place between 10.02.2022 to 12.02.2022 out of which, this Contempt proceedings arise and further undertake to a good behaviour in future", his affidavit undertook. .In light of this apology, the court agreed to drop the proceedings. "Considering the statement made by the accused in paragraph 4 of the additional affidavit that he sincerely repents for his behaviour and by accepting the unconditional apology tendered by him, the proceedings initiated against the accused are dropped."With this, the petition was listed for hearing on compliance with the court's orders on 16 December..The High Court was represented by Senior Advocate Kiran S Javali while the respondent was represented by Advocate Harish Prabhu S..[Read Order]