Supreme Court bars lawyer for a year in 'contempt'

A lawyer of the Bombay Bar Association was punished by the Supreme Court for contempt by barring him from practicing in the top court for a year and sentencing him to three months imprisonment. However, the sentence will remain suspended till he abides by his undertaking not to browbeat any judge of the Supreme Court or Bombay High Court.

The order by a bench of Justices RF Nariman and Vineet Saran was passed against lawyer Mathews J Nedumpara, who also heads an association of lawyers titled National Lawyers Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms.

Nedumpara had come to court and questioned the practice of senior lawyers getting designated. It was his view that this process was not merit-based, but selective as judges exercise favouritism in designating persons as senior advocates.

Then, during arguments, he took the name of noted jurist Fali S Nariman several times despite being warned by Justice Nariman, who is the son of the senior Nariman, against doing so.

The Court on March 12 held Nedumpara guilty of contempt as it saw this conduct amounting to "browbeating " of judges. To the bench's surprise, they found that Nedumpara has had a history of facing the ire of courts in several matters.

On Wednesday, the court fixed the matter to hear Nedumpara on the sentence to be awarded.

Although he offered an unconditional apology, the court failed to accept his argument that the point of taking senior Nariman's name was issue-based.

The bench asked him, if this was so, then he should have raised similar grievances against other sitting SC judges.