Madras High Court fumes over advocate's 'vulgar activity' with woman during virtual court hearing

An advocate who reportedly appeared to be in a compromising position with a woman during online court proceedings before a single judge was slapped with criminal contempt proceedings by the Madras High Court. A high court bench comprising Justices P N Prakash and R Hemalatha suo motu initiated proceedings against the advocate. As an immediate measure, the accused advocate has been barred from practice till the pendency of the disciplinary proceedings against him by the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The high court judges noted that there was a need to revisit conduct during court hearings during online proceedings. The judges further said that the court cannot be a mute spectator and look away when 'such brazen vulgarity is publicly displayed' in the middle of court proceedings.

The court directed the Crime Branch-CID to register a suo motu FIR based on the impugned video clipping and file a preliminary report before the court in the next 24 hours naming the characters who are 'found engaging in the vulgar activity'. The police commissioner has been told to take steps to stop the sharing of the video clipping on social media. The court directed the registrar to take steps to liaise with the authorities concerned to ensure that the impugned video clipping is removed from the internet.

While stating that there the time had come to revisit the procedure of conducting court proceedings in hybrid mode, especially considering that advocates had mostly started appearing in-person in our courts, the bench, however, put the ball in the court of the Acting Chief Justice to decide on this.

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• advocate
• compromising position
• sex video
• video
• virtual court hearing
• virtual hearing
• vulgar