A video of Karnataka Chief Justice reprimanding and threatening to debar a lawyer in an unrelated case, is viral on WhatsApp and social media with a false claim that it is from the recently concluded hijab case hearings in the state.
The clip is being shared with misleading claims that the lawyer seen in the video was scolded by the judge for bringing the hijab matter to court.
The Karnataka High Court on March 15, 2022 upheld the hijab ban in educational institutions while ruling that wearing a hijab was a non-essential practice in Islam.
Also Read: Wearing A Hijab Just A Recommendation, Not Compulsory in The Quran: Karnataka HC.
In the video, the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court can be seen angrily reprimanding an advocate and threatening to initiate a complaint with the Bar Council to debar the lawyer. It is not clear from the video what sparked the outburst.
The 2.20 minutes video is being shared with text that claims, "the court stripping the lawyer who was defending the petitioners on Hijab. People must know how serious is this issue and how foolish the lawyer to bring this up to CJI Karnataka"
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The video is being widely shared on social media with the false claim
Also Read: Viral Message About Bombay HC Allowing Students To Wear Hijab Is Misleading
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from March 3, 2022, during a High Court of Karnataka live telecast where arguments were being heard regarding a commercial appeal case and not the hijab row.
The case was an arbitration where Bengaluru resident M Venkatesh was the appellant and the Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike was the respondent. The case was heard by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice SR Krishna Kumar. The appeal was dismissed.
We found that the viral exchange in the video was between Karnataka HC CJ Ritu Raj Awasthi and Advocate G Sanjay and Senior Advocate D R Ravishankar.
Viewing the video, it appears that the Chief Justice reprimanded the lawyers representing the petitioner for failing to mention that the High Court had already passed a judgement in a separate matter with similar facts, which would have gone against their client in the present case.
The viral video has been clipped from the live telecast of the court uploaded to YouTube on March 3, 2022 with the title, 'High Court of Karnataka Live Telecast of Court Proceedings of CH-1 on 03.03.2022 at 10.30am'
From 37 minutes onward, one can see the same exchange as seen in the viral video.
The court also decided to drop proceedings and not take any further action against Advocate G Sanjay considering his young age and on the basis of assurances given by Senior Advocate DR Ravishankar.
"We have gone through the affidavit. The advocate appearing for the appellant G.Sanjay has submitted that he has admitted his mistake and it is for the first time that he has committed such a mistake and learned a lesson and solemnly assures the Court that such instances will not occur in future and he tenders his unconditional and profuse apologies in this regard," the Court said.
The judgment dated March 4, 2022, can be read here.
(Additional reporting by Ritika Jain)