A man attended a Gujarat High Court hearing from a toilet, triggering suo motu contempt action.
The court called it “disorderly behaviour” and ordered immediate video deletion.
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has started suo motu contempt of court proceedings against a man who appeared in a virtual hearing while sitting on a toilet seat. The shocking incident happened during a hearing on June 20, 2025, before Justice Nirzar S. Desai.
A video clip of the incident soon went viral on social media, drawing massive public criticism and raising serious questions about courtroom decorum in virtual settings.
A Division Bench of Justices A.S. Supehia and R.T. Vachhani, in their order dated June 30 (which was uploaded on July 3), directed the High Court registry to begin contempt proceedings against the man seen in the video.
The court expressed strong disapproval of what it described as
“disorderly and uncontrolled behaviour”.
The Bench further asked the Registrar of Information and Technology to find a way to stop such acts in the future during livestreamed court hearings. T
he judges said,
“The infamous video tarnishing the image of this court is widely circulated on social media and requires immediate deletion.”
The person in the video has been identified as Abdul Samad, a resident of Kim village in Surat district, Gujarat. He had joined the virtual court hearing through his mobile phone while sitting on a toilet seat.
In the one-minute video, his camera was facing him, and after using the toilet, he picked up the phone and walked out.
To make things worse, he rejoined the court livestream again later, this time from another location, wearing earphones and waiting for his matter to be heard.
The court has now issued a notice to Abdul Samad, asking him to explain why he should not be punished under Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The matter will be taken up again after two weeks.
Interestingly, Justice Nirzar Desai, who was presiding over the hearing, did not seem to notice the earlier misconduct. Mr. Samad was the complainant in an assault case and was represented by lawyers who informed the court that both parties had come to a compromise.
Mr. Samad had agreed to quash the FIR, and based on this, Justice Desai allowed the plea and closed the matter.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gujarat High Court, like many other courts in India, allowed litigants and lawyers to attend hearings virtually.
Background Of The Case
The case began when Abdul Samad, a resident of Kim village in Surat, filed a complaint in an assault matter. The case was listed before the Gujarat High Court for quashing the First Information Report (FIR), as both parties had reportedly reached a settlement.
On June 20, 2025, during the virtual hearing conducted before Justice Nirzar S. Desai, Mr. Samad joined the online court proceedings from his mobile phone while sitting on a toilet seat.
The camera was turned on and directly faced him, capturing the entire act. After finishing, he exited the washroom and later rejoined the same hearing from another location, wearing earphones.
Justice Desai, seemingly unaware of the earlier incident, proceeded with the matter. Mr. Samad’s lawyers told the court that a compromise had been reached, and Mr. Samad had given his consent to withdraw the complaint. Accordingly, the court allowed the FIR to be quashed.
However, a video of Mr. Samad’s inappropriate behaviour during the virtual hearing went viral on social media, causing public outrage.
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