Karnataka HC sentences drunk lawyer to one day in jail

BENGALURU: The High Court sentenced advocate Pankaj Kaushik to simple imprisonment for a day, till the raising of the court, with a fine of Rs. 2,000 for contempt of court proceedings for alleged misconduct inside the court hall in a inebriated state.

A division bench of Justice Anu Sivaraman and Justice Venkatesh Naik T convicted Kaushik under Section 12(1) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and sentenced him on the suomoto contempt proceedings initiated in 2022 by the Registrar General of the High Court.

“We have noticed the conduct of the accused. Far from expressing any remorse for the initial criminal contempt committed by him, he has attempted to justify his actions and proceeded to make scandalous and unfounded statements against the judicial institution as a whole.

His conduct can only be termed as deliberate and adamant and reveals complete apathy towards social, moral and judicial codes of conduct. We are of the clear opinion that if conduct of this nature is not punished, sociopaths like the accused are likely to repeat such offences with impunity which would endanger the rule of law and the judicial system as a whole,” the court said.

The Principal District and Sessions Judge, Uttara Kannada, Karwar, had submitted a letter dated April 12, 2022, along with letter dated April 8, 2022 of Shrinivas Patil, Additional Civil Judge and JMFC-II, Uttara Kannada district along with certificate of drunkenness of the accused for initiating contempt against him for misconduct.

The accused, who is a party-in-person in a domestic violence case, though his case was not listed before the Additional Civil Judge, appeared before the court and started to yell at the presiding officer (PO) saying that the PO had not given the date to his case. He also yelled at the bench clerk for not calling out his case.

The accused even made allegations against the PO which was brought to the notice of the Principal District and Sessions Judge. He also made defamatory statements against the judges. On April 20, 2022, he interrupted the arguments of a senior counsel in the middle and in a disrespectful tone asked him to stop his arguments so that his case may be taken up.