Delhi HC asks ex-judge to submit CCTV footage of case hearing

New Delhi, Feb 8 The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought former judge and lawyer Sujata Kohli to submit on record relevant material, including the CCTV footages during a trial court hearing of Delhi High Court Bar Association President Rajeev Khosla in connection with a 1994 assault case, which allegedly interfered with the due process of law.

The retired district court judge Kohli, in her plea before the bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anup J. Bhambhani, alleged that Khosla has, by a series of acts and words, directly interfered with the administration of justice, interfered with the due process of law and scandalised the court on its face.

The court said it considers contempt very seriously. "We are as concerned as anybody else with respect to how court proceedings have to be conducted and how decorum has to be maintained. If you place the CCTV footage on record, it will go a long way," the court stated.

Accordingly, the matter has been posted for February 16 for further hearing. During the course of the hearing, Kohli submitted, "Are we going to allow a convict, be it anybody, to state into the eyes of Court and to shout at the Court, to bully it to the extent to what I have witnessed on November 27."

On November 27, 2021, during the virtual hearing, the courtroom had witnessed jam-packed lawyers with sloganeering.

The courtrooms and the legal fraternity had witnessed unprecedented events during the hearing of Khosla in an assault case on the complaint of Kohli, who was a lawyer at Tis Hazari courts in the 1990s and retired last year as a District and Sessions Judge.

On November 30, 2021, the courtroom of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gajender Singh Nagar witnessed tumultuous scenes with the supporters of Khosla raising slogans during the course of the hearing.

The court had let off Khosla with a direction to pay a total compensation of Rs 40,000 to the victim and the state in the 28-year-old case amid lawyers' protest in the courtroom.

Prior to that on October 29 the court had convicted Khosla in the assault case.