Supreme Court: In a Special Leave Petition challenging the judgment of the Delhi High Court, which upheld the conviction of a lawyer for using abusive and inappropriate language towards a female judge during proceedings in a challan matter, the Division Bench of Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan, JJ. declined to grant any relief to the petitioner and refused to interfere with the impugned orders.
However, at the request of counsel for the petitioner, the Court granted the petitioner two weeks’ time to surrender.
The case arose from a complaint filed by the female presiding officer, who alleged that the lawyer had insulted and outraged her modesty while she was discharging her official duties from the dais. She further stated that the lawyer’s conduct was not only personally demeaning but also amounted to an affront to the dignity of the Court.
The lawyer was convicted by the Trial Court and sentenced to 18 months of simple imprisonment under Section 509 of the Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’) for outraging the modesty of a woman. Additionally, he received three months’ imprisonment each under Sections 189 (threatening a public servant) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging duties) of the IPC.
The Delhi High Court, while affirming the conviction and sentence, strongly observed that “the act of outraging the modesty of a judicial officer while she was presiding over Court proceedings, seated on the dais and discharging her solemn duty of dispensing justice, attacks the very foundation of judicial decorum and institutional integrity.”
[Sanjay Rathore v. State (Govt. of NCT Delhi), Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 8930/2025, decided on 10-06-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner(s): Mr. Dilip Singh, Adv. Mr. R Karthik, Adv. Mr. Arnav Mehta, Adv. Mr. Pramod Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Vivek Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Amit Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Piyush Sardana, Adv. Mr. Sk Warish Ali, Adv. Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR