The Delhi High Court criticised a senior lawyer for appearing with red tape on his mouth as a protest, calling his conduct “completely in poor taste.” The Court noted he was only asked to pause earlier because his arguments were repetitive, not because he was silenced.
The Delhi High Court recently showed strong displeasure with the behaviour of a lawyer who came to the courtroom with red stickfast tape on his mouth, saying he had been “silenced” by the bench during earlier hearings.
The incident took place on December 1 during the hearing of a contempt of court case and a related writ petition filed by Nand Kishore in the matter titled Court on its own motion v Delhi Administration thr BDO.
Advocate RK Saini, who has more than 25 years of legal experience and was appearing for the petitioner, walked into the courtroom with red tape stuck across his lips.
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At first, the judges were worried that he might have suffered some injury. A Bench of Justices Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Anish Dayal asked him about the tape, and Saini replied that it was a symbolic protest.
He told the Court that he had been cut short during arguments in previous hearings and therefore used the tape to show that he had been prevented from presenting his case fully.
The Court strongly criticised his conduct and said it was “completely in poor taste” and “unbecoming of a lawyer” of his experience.
The judges clarified that Saini had been asked to pause only because his arguments had become too long and repetitive, and the Court needed to hear the State government’s response.
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The order recorded the following:
“The aforesaid conduct of Mr Saini warrants us to place on record that the arguments canvassed by Mr Saini on last couple of occasions before this Court were getting too lengthy and repetitive, and this Court upon appreciating the case of petitioner requested Mr Saini to stop from arguing further, so that we could have the response of the counsel for the other side. In this context, conduct of Mr Saini, as demonstrated today in the Court, is completely in poor taste and unexpected of a lawyer of the stature of Mr Saini who, in our understanding, has standing of more than 25 years.”
The Court said it could have taken action against Saini but decided not to do so only because of his long standing at the Bar. The judges added:
“This could have prompted us to pass appropriate orders against Mr Saini, however, considering his standing, we have refrained ourselves from passing such order. However, we place on record our strong displeasure to the unbecoming and unbefitting conduct of Advocate Mr RK Saini.”
After the incident, the Court adjourned the main case to January 21, 2026.
In the matter, advocates RK Saini and Dashmesh Tripathi appeared for the petitioner Nand Kishore. The Delhi government was represented by Senior Advocate Sanjay Jain, Standing Counsel Sameer Vashisht, Panel Counsel Anubhav Gupta and advocate Khushboo Mitta.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was represented by advocates Gaganmeet Singh Sachdeva, Hridyesh Khanna and Harshpreet Singh Chadha.
Case Title:
Court on its own motion v Delhi Administration thr BDO
Read Order:
