Two men who tried to influence Gujarat High Court judge by posing as Congress MLA convicted for contempt of court

Two men who attempted to influence Justice Bela M Trivedi (now a judge of the Supreme Court) by telephoning her claiming to be a Congress MLA so as to secure anticipatory bail in a matter, was convicted for contempt of court by the Gujarat High Court on Friday [Suo Motu vs Vijay Arvindbhai Shah]. .A division bench of Chief Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice NV Anjaria said it cannot embolden such elements as their act was serious and affects the justice delivery system."In view of the maintenance of independence of judiciary and the faith of public in the justice delivery system, we must not allow the contemnors to escape the punishment by merely tendering an unconditional apology. Thus, we refuse to accept and consider the apologies tendered by the contemnors," the bench said in its order.The bench, therefore, ordered the contemnors Vijay Shah and Alpesh Patel, to stand in the courtroom till 5 pm when the court rises and also pay a fine of ₹2,000 along with costs ₹1 lakh each. "We further impose costs of ₹1 lakh on each of them, to be deposited with the Registry of this Court within a period of one week," the bench ordered. A detailed copy of the order is yet to be made available. .The bench was hearing suo motu contempt proceedings it had initiated against Shah and Patel in June 2020. The issue arose after Shah filed a plea for anticipatory bail plea in June 2020. He was apprehending his arrest in a case pertaining to an altercation he had with the local police over enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown rules. Since Justice Trivedi was to hear the bail plea, Patel telephoned the judge claiming to be Congress MLA Niranjan Patel. He tried to influence the judge and asked her to reject the anticipatory bail plea of Shah. The judge had then called for a police investigation into the issue as Shah argued that the Congress MLA wants him to be arrested. However, it later turned out that it was a pre-planned conspiracy hatched by the duo. As per their plan, if a Congress MLA would call the judge asking her to reject the bail, she would act otherwise and grant him bail. This conduct was deprecated by Justice Trivedi and subsequently contempt proceedings were initiated..On Friday, when Chief Justice Gokani convicted the duo for criminal contempt of court, Senior Advocate Mihir Thakore, appearing for Shah, urged the bench to grant a minimum punishment and fine to his client.The Court then proceeded to impose fine of ₹2,000 and costs of ₹1 lakh on the duo.