Keywords: Misbehavior case, CCTv footage
Lucknow, The Allahabad High Court at Lucknow bench has taken a significant step in the case of alleged misbehavior with a lady judge by advocates outside a courtroom in Barabanki district last year. A division bench of Justices Sangeeta Chandra and Narendra Kumar Johari has recently ordered a forensic examination of the CCTV footage pertaining to the incident.
The court raised concerns about the authenticity of the submitted CCTV footages, noting that they were only a few hours each day and contained unexplained breaks. This led the court to opine that the footage might have been tampered with or deleted intentionally. To address these doubts, the court directed the Senior Registrar to send the CCTV footage to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Lucknow, with a specific request to examine it thoroughly, especially focusing on the possibility of deletion or tampering. The forensic expert’s report is expected to be submitted by the next date of listing, which is August 4, 2023.
To ensure the preservation of critical evidence, the court had previously directed the Senior Registrar to safeguard a hard disc sent from the court of Barabanki.
The case stems from an incident last year when Civil Judge Arpita Sahu, posted at Ramsanehighat in Barabanki, referred a contempt matter to the high court under Section 15(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The lady judge alleged that officer bearers of the District Bar Association had used offensive language against her during the course of her duties. Advocates Ritesh Mishra and Mohan Singh were named in the lady judge’s complaint.
Last year, in response to the lady judge’s complaint, the high court had already ordered the Additional District Judge, Barabanki, to preserve all relevant CCTV footage, including the areas leading to courtroom-14, where the alleged incident took place, for the period between September 6, 2022, and October 8, 2022.
The forensic examination of the CCTV footage is expected to shed light on the veracity of the lady judge’s claims and determine if any tampering or deletion occurred, ultimately helping the court to arrive at a just and fair resolution for all parties involved.[1]
Written by- Jaydeep Ramani, College name – Veer Narmad South Gujarat University,Semester- 7 an intern under Legal Vidhiya
[1] https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/misconduct-towards-lady-judge-allahabad-high-court-forensic-examination-cctv-footage
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