Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Monday got angry at a lawyer and asked him to lower his voice. Also, he asked whether he was addressing the judges or the gallery outside the court. The 3-judge bench is hearing the rape and murder case of a trainee doctor from Kolkata, which includes Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice JB Pardiwala besides the CJI. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that he has videos and photos to show that the lawyer had pelted stones in protest against the incident at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. He is advocate Kaushal Bagchi, who is also a BJP leader. He was earlier in the Congress but joined the BJP this year.
Bagchi retorted to Kapil Sibal’s allegation of stone pelting. He asked how can a senior lawyer make such statements in court? To this, the Chief Justice said, ‘Are you trying to address the gallery outside the court? I have been observing your behavior for the last 2 hours.’ The CJI said, can you first lower your voice? Listen to the Chief Justice and lower your pitch. You are talking in front of a bench of three judges. This is not a large audience that is watching the proceedings through video conferencing. After hearing these things, the lawyer apologized to the bench.
“I am not used to this type of advocacy”
Shortly after this, when more lawyers started raising various issues, the CJI commented. He said, ‘I am not used to this kind of advocacy, where 7-8 people start arguing at the same time.’ Let us tell you that the Supreme Court directed the CBI to submit a new report on the investigation by September 17 regarding the Kolkata case. The SC bench studied the report submitted in a sealed envelope. The bench said, ‘CBI has submitted a status report which shows that the investigation is in progress. We direct the CBI to submit a new status report. We do not want to guide the CBI on its investigation.’ The CBI has decided to send forensic samples to AIIMS for further investigation.
