In a first, SC's full court decides to issue showcause to senior advocate
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has decided to issue a showcause notice to a senior advocate asking why the designation conferred upon him by the apex court should not be revoked.
The unprecedented decision comes in the wake of allegations of misconduct against senior advocate Rishi Malhotra.
A full court, convened by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, and comprising all apex court judges on the administrative side unanimously decided on the decision.
The top court had passed strictures against Malhotra on February 20.
He is accused of suppressing material facts in multiple cases of premature release of prisoners aside from making misleading statements despite warnings of the top court.
The full court, which authorised its secretary general Bharat Parashar, to issue the showcause notice, said Malhotra should be given one more opportunity to explain his conduct before being stripped off the senior designation.
In its February 20 verdict, a bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih flagged his conduct in a recent case while accusing him of not disclosing that the top court had barred the convict's remission for 30 years.
Similarly, Malhotra was found by the court to have misled the apex court on other occasions.
"We make it clear that we are not recording any final finding against Rishi Malhotra, senior advocate, on the question whether his designation can be withdrawn. We leave it to the Chief Justice of India to take a call on this issue," it had said.
The bench said what it had reproduced was "borne out from the record".
Malhotra, it said, was designated as a senior advocate on August 14, 2024.
"The conduct of the advocate reflected from the orders of this court passed in this very appeal, and other cases where the advocate appeared raises an important question of whether the decisions of this court in the case of Indira Jaising-I and Indira Jaising-II, which lay down the guidelines for designation of senior advocates by this Court and high courts across the country under the 1961 Act, need reconsideration," it added.
The bench wondered it the system of senior designation set up under these decisions had "really worked effectively".
"A serious introspection is required to answer the question of whether the rules framed in terms of the said decisions have ensured that only deserving advocates are being designated," it said.
The bench said it neither could disagree with the two binding decisions nor take a contrary view.
"However, all that we are doing is expressing a few serious doubts and concerns. We propose to direct that this issue be placed before the Chief Justice of India to consider whether the issue needs to be reconsidered by a Bench of appropriate strength," it said.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
