Mumbai: Bombay High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Maharashtra’s law and judiciary department secretary and senior legal adviser as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for his “outrageous”, “unpardonable” and “unwarranted outburst” in a packed courtroom, blaming the court administration for not filling up vacant judicial posts.A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata said the official’s “aggressive demeanour deliberately displayed in full public view while attempting to justify the stand in his affidavits, not only scandalised the court” but also “undermined and attempted to lower its authority”.“A judicial officer cannot exhibit such a behavior in open court and thereafter expect a pardon through an apology in any manner or form later,” Justices Gadkari and Khata said in their Sept 1 order. “To permit this would convey to the public at large a deeply troubling message: that one can commit an otherwise inexcusable act with impunity in open court and then sheepishly, in a theatrical manner, not meaning a word of it, offer an apology, either through a Senior Counsel or Advocate General to absolve himself of an act which ex facie is contemptuous,” the order noted.HC said at the hearing of an interim plea in the PIL, it was “confronted with a matter of serious concern.” HC was hearing a petition filed by RTI activist Vihar Durve in a public interest litigation filed in 2013.HC had found an affidavit filed by Dilip Ghumare as principal secretary, law and judiciary department “unsatisfactory” and had asked the state to show averments in a later reply that stated 179 new posts for fast track courts were created.When the additional govt pleader was unable to provide a clear response, HC asked the secretary present in court to point it out and also asked who drafted the reply.HC said “rather than responding to our query,” he “launched into an aggressive, high-pitched tone (bordering to shouting)” saying “the High Court administration was responsible for not filling up the 179 posts” before a packed courtroom.His outburst “undermined and attempted to lower” the authority of the court and constitutes contempt ex facie under the Contempt of Court Act, said HC.“Dilip S Ghumare is… currently Secretary and Senior Legal adviser, Department of Law and Judiciary, having his office at Mantralaya, Mumbai. His intemperate outburst against this Court’s administration in full public view constituted a deliberate and unwarranted assault upon the dignity and authority of this Court. Such conduct is manifestly unbecoming of any judicial officer and simply outrageous, falling far below the standard we would expect,” said HC in its Sept 1 order.Litigants are expected to maintain decorum and respect the sanctity of the proceedings, HC observed.HC issued the official a notice under the Contempt of Courts (Bombay High Court) Rules, 1994, to state why no contempt proceedings be initiated against him and placed the matter next on Sept 11.
