NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused leniency to an advocate, who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for using abusive language in 2015 to outrage the modesty of a judicial officer in a Karkardooma courtroom in east Delhi and rejected his plea for reducing the jail term to six months already undergone by him.The convicted advocate, Sanjay Rathod, pleaded with the partial working day bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan that he was the sole breadwinner of the family comprising his old parents, wife and two children and that he was remorseful about the incident that took place in the courtroom nearly a decade back.The bench said the Delhi High Court has already directed the sentences to run concurrently, thus reducing the total period of incarceration from two years to 18 months. It asked the advocate to surrender within two weeks to serve the remaining period of imprisonment.Justice Manmohan, who was the chief justice of Delhi HC prior to his appointment as a judge of the SC, said, “In Delhi, women judicial officers comprise nearly 50% of the total working strength of judges in the trial courts. If their dignity is not protected, it will create an unsafe atmosphere in the courtroom”. At present the female judicial officers constitute 38% of the total judges in trial courts in India. In Delhi their numbers are healthier at 48%. When the woman judicial officer was conducting proceedings in a traffic challan case, the delinquent advocate was informed by the court that his client’s case had been adjourned. Enraged, he started abusing the judicial officer and used intemperate and abusive language to threaten her. The judicial officer filed a police complaint accusing the advocate of outraging her modesty by using filthy language.In the police case, he was convicted and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for insulting the modesty of a woman and three months each for two other offences and was directed to serve the sentences consecutively. On appeal, the additional sessions judge upheld the sentence and directed him to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 to her.The HC in its judgment said it was a case in which injustice was inflicted upon a sitting female judicial officer, within her own courtroom – a space that should embody respect, order and the majesty of law.“Here, where she was entrusted with the solemn duty to dispense ‘justice’ without fear or favour, she was subjected to misconduct, threats, and humiliation by one who, as an advocate, was duty-bound to uphold the dignity of the court. This is, therefore, not merely a case of individual misbehaviour, but a case where injustice was done to justice itself – where a judge, who symbolizes the impartial voice of the law, became the target of personal attack while discharging her official duties,” the HC had said and upheld the 18-month sentence to the advocate.
