The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the Registrar (Judicial) to conduct an inquiry to determine the truth and authenticity of the allegations against advocate Madan Singh.
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Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has recently instructed its Registry to proceed with contempt of court charges against a lawyer for his alleged misbehavior towards a judge and making derogatory comments about her family members during a court session.
Rejecting advocate Madan Singh‘s written apology and considering a prior contempt of court incident involving him, the division bench comprising Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vinay Saraf stated that Singh’s repeated alleged contemptuous behavior compelled the Court to take further action to safeguard its dignity.
“Considering the totality of circumstances where contemnor has allegedly caused repeat act of contempt, once before Judicial Officer of District Judiciary and thereafter before the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court, acceptance of written apology tendered by contemnor would amount to travesty of justice,”
-remarked the Court.
Consequently, the Court directed the Registry to formalize charges against the lawyer and grant him a reasonable opportunity to respond. Subsequently, the Registrar (Judicial) has been tasked with conducting an inquiry by recording statements from witnesses.
“The framing of charges is all the more necessary since the remorse expressed by contemnor is neither genuine nor bona fide. It is merely to escape the rigors of contempt,”
-noted the Court.
The criminal contempt proceedings against Singh stem from an incident in March 2021, when he allegedly misbehaved with a division bench comprising Justices Anjuli Palo and BK Shrivastava during the hearing of criminal appeals in a murder case. Singh purportedly made personal remarks regarding Justice Palo’s family members, including her husband Justice (retd.) SK Palo and their daughter Shubhangi Palo Datt, who is a judicial officer.
“Mr. Madan Singh, Advocate, who is having experience of more than 20 years of practice as an Advocate, is not expected to behave in such a ridiculous manner with the Judges in the Court and pass personal comments on their family to make unnecessary pressure on the Bench,”
-the Court had expressed while initiating contempt of court proceedings against him.
Initially, Singh attempted to justify his conduct, but later he sought to withdraw the proceedings by offering an unqualified and unconditional apology. However, the bench led by Justice Nagu declined to accept the apology and instructed the Registry to frame charges and conduct an inquiry to verify the allegations.
“After recording of statements, the matter be placed before appropriate Bench for rendering findings as regards contemnor’s innocence or guilt,”
-ordered the Court, scheduling the case for review after 10 weeks.
CASE TITLE:
In Reference vs Shri Madan Singh.
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