Gujarat High Court closes contempt case against Senior Advocate seen sipping beer during virtual court hearing

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday closed the contempt of court proceedings against Senior Advocate Bhaskar Tanna, who was spotted sipping beer during a virtual court (VC) hearing.

A Bench of Justices AS Supehia and RT Vachhani took into account a report by the court registry and noted that while Tanna's act was contemptuous, it was unintentional and not done on purpose.

"Shri Tanna has tendered unconditional apology and the act has occurred due to an error in operating the system. He says he upholds the dignity and majesty of the court and he has 52 years of practice before this institution and has also been conferred the designation of Senior Advocate since 1995. From the report prepared by the registry and on the overall appreciation of facts, and the reading of affidavit of unconditional apology, we find that the contemptuous act was committed through an error and Shri Tanna had no intention to willfully lower down the majesty of this court," the Bench noted.

Further, the Court also considered the fact that the Senior Advocate had tendered an unconditional apology and hence, chose to close the case.

"We accept the unconditional apology tendered by Shri Tanna. Learned Senior Advocate Tanna says such an act will not be committed in future," the order noted.

A video had gone viral in which Tanna was seen appearing before Justice Sandeep Bhatt on June 26 sipping beer from a mug.

After the video was shared widely, the Bench of Justices AS Supehia and RT Vachhani passed an order on July 1 initiating contempt of court proceedings against Tanna.

Pursuant to that, a contempt of court case was registered by the Court.

When the matter came up for hearing today, Tanna acknowledged that it was a mistake but it was not wilful since he had pressed the wrong button on the video conference platform while trying to exit the virtual court hearing.

This led to him being visible on the screen instead of exiting.

“I would request that it should be put an end to. Such errors happen whether we like it not. Reflexes are not as fast. If it was not wilful, would it amount to.. I can’t defend. But I went to the learned single judge and circulated my unconditional apology. My request would be pardon me,” he said.

He also took objection to comparisons with another person who had appeared in a virtual court hearing from toilet in another case.

"It is a blot. I can’t be compared to the man who has taken it there (toilet)," Tanna said.

Tanna had earlier too apologised to the Court.

He had on July 1 told the Division Bench that it was an inadvertent mistake on his part since he was under the impression that he was exiting the virtual court but he pressed a wrong button on the video conference platform instead of the button to end the video call.

This led to him being visible on the VC platform sipping beer, he said.

"I am apologising. I came to know about the circulation of (unclear) and the order of the court (initiating contempt proceedings). I am unconditionally apologising and my request is whatever punishment you want to give, I will accept. I am full responsible for that error. Error happened because of technical breach. Now I don't want to defend. I am guilty and I should be punished but I must say that while I unconditionally apologise, there was no intent. I will explain why it happened. Instead of pressing 'going out of the court' button, I pressed another button and my matter was not going on. I wanted to close it (the VC call) but instead of 'A', I pushed 'B' and that is why it happened for 15 seconds. It is my error and I must take responsibility but court may not carry an impression that I have done it intentionally. So at the first available opportunity, I came here to say I apologise. I plead guilty. It is an error of 15 seconds. If it can be put an end to, I will be grateful," he had said on July 1.

Subsequently, the next day on July 2, he also apologised to Justice Bhatt before whom the faux pas had happened on June 26.

Tanna told Justice Bhat that he was in fact waiting for his turn to appear in another matter when he pressed the wrong button. This was how he was caught on camera sipping beer, he stated.

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