Senior Advocate seen sipping beer during virtual hearing apologises to Gujarat High Court

Senior Advocate Bhaskar Tanna, who was spotted sipping beer during a virtual court (VC) hearing, apologised to the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday.

A video had gone viral in which Tanna was seen appearing before Justice Sandeep Bhatt on June 26 sipping beer from a mug.

After the video was shared widely, another Bench of Justices AS Supehia and RT Vachhani had passed an order initiating contempt of court proceedings against Tanna on July 1.

Tanna told this Division Bench on the same day in the afternoon that it was an inadvertent mistake on his part since he was under the impression that he was exiting the virtual court but he pressed a wrong button on the video conference platform instead of the button to end the video call.

This led to him being visible on the VC platform sipping beer, he said while apologising unconditionally.

"I am apologising. I came to know about the circulation of (unclear) and the order of the court (initiating contempt proceedings). I am unconditionally apologising and my request is whatever punishment you want to give, I will accept. I am full responsible for that error. Error happened because of technical breach. Now I don't want to defend. I am guilty and I should be punished but I must say that while I unconditionally apologise, there was no intent. I will explain why it happened. Instead of pressing 'going out of the court' button, I pressed another button and my matter was not going on. I wanted to close it (the VC call) but instead of 'A', I pushed 'B' and that is why it happened for 15 seconds. It is my error and I must take responsibility but court may not carry an impression that I have done it intentionally. So at the first available opportunity, I came here to say I apologise. I plead guilty. It is an error of 15 seconds. If it can be put an end to, I will be grateful," he said.

The Bench said that the contempt proceedings have been registered and will come up for hearing and the Senior Counsel can tender his explanation before the Bench which hears the contempt matter.

"I will do it," Tanna said.

Subsequently, the next day on July 2, he also apologised to Justice Bhatt before whom the faux pas had happened on June 26.

Tanna told Justice Bhat that he was in fact waiting for his turn to appear in another matter when he pressed the wrong button. This was how he was caught on camera sipping beer, he stated.

The contempt of court case against Tanna is yet to be heard by the High Court.