By Our Legal Correspondent
New Delhi: A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and comprising four senior most judges on Sept 20 took suo motu cognizance of a video clip on social media showing a Karnataka High Court judge’s “ scandalous “ remarks in the open court to a woman advocate during proceeding.
The High Court judge, Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda, was seen on video making a sexist and disparaging remark to the woman lawyer, creating a furor online.
The other four judges on the Bench were Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishilkesh Roy. The Bench has sought the assistance of Attorney-General R Venkataramani and Solicit-General Tushar Mehta , both of whom were present in the court room.
The Bench directed the Registrar-General, Karnataka High Court , to consult the Chief Justice of the High Court and submit a report on the incident in the next two days. The Bench listed the case for hearing on Sept 25.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising had posted the video on X with a comment “we call upon the Chief Justice of India to take suo motu action against this judge and send him for gender sensitization training”. The same judge had, on a previous occasion, been in the eye of public storm for reportedly referring to a Muslim dominated sub-locality in West Bengaluru as ‘Pakistan’.
The video showed that the judge’s comment was triggered by the initiative taken by the woman lawyers to respond to a question directed at the male lawyer representing the opposite side in the case. The judge said, in a jocular tone, that she seemed to know everything about him and may even reveal the color of his undergarment if asked tomorrow.
