The Gujarat High Court on Friday convicted two men for attempting to influence Justice Bela M Trivedi by telephoning her claiming to be a Congress MLA in order to secure anticipatory bail in a matter.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice NV Anjaria was hearing suo motu contempt proceedings it had initiated against Vijay Shah and Alpesh Patel in June 2020.
The problem arose after Shah requested anticipatory bail in June 2020. He was anticipating his arrest in connection with an altercation he had with local police over the enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown rules.
Because Justice Trivedi was scheduled to hear the bail application, Patel phoned the judge and pretended to be Congress MLA Niranjan Patel.
He attempted to persuade the judge to reject Shah’s anticipatory bail request.
The judge then ordered a police investigation into the matter after Shah claimed that the Congress MLA wanted him arrested.
However, it was later revealed that it was a pre-planned conspiracy devised by the duo.
According to their plan, if a Congress MLA calls the judge and asks her to reject the bail, the judge will act differently and grant him bail. Justice Trivedi condemned this behaviour, and contempt proceedings were initiated as a result.
The division bench stated that it cannot encourage such elements because their actions are serious and have an impact on the justice delivery system.
“In view of the maintenance of independence of judiciary and the faith of public in the justice delivery system, we must not allow the contemnors to escape the punishment by merely tendering an unconditional apology. Thus, we refuse to accept and consider the apologies tendered by the contemnors,” the bench stated in its order.
As a result, the bench ordered the contemnors, Vijay Shah and Alpesh Patel, to remain in the courtroom until 5 p.m., when the court rises, and to pay a 2,000 fine and costs of Rs. 1 lakh each.
“We also impose costs of one lakh on each of them, which must be deposited with the Registry of this Court within one week,” the bench ordered.
