The lawyer of the former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Neera Yadav, who was convicted in a land fraud case, who was rebuked by a Supreme Court bench on Monday in the dropping Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s name during the proceedings.
Yadav has filed an appeal in the top court against a four-year jail term for the criminal conspiracy and corruption in a case related to the allotment of plots for institutional and industrial units in Noida.
When Sonia’s case came up for hearing on Monday, Prakash Kumar Singh the advocate-on-record sought an adjournment on the ground that both of the two senior advocates were available.
Singh said that, “Mr Gopal Subramaniam had been unwell. The other senior advocate had received an urgent call from Ms Sonia Gandhi because of which he had to leave the court.”
Sonia Gandhi
Then Justice J S Khehar and Justice Arun Mishra did spoke to each other, before pulling up Singh.
As Justice Khehar said it was “totally wrong and unfair” on the part of the lawyer who had dropped Sonia Gandhi’s name since the court was absolutely not interested in knowing anything beyond this case.
At this stage, Justice Mishra has said that Singh’s statement was also sufficient to haul him for contempt. He felt that it was contempt of court, and they were trying to influence the court by saying all.
Moreover, the bench refused to hear this case any further and have also asked Singh to go to some other bench.
“List after one week, and before some other bench. The Registry is directed to further obtain necessary instructions for posting on this case from the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India,” the bench ordered.
