Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday witnessed some drama after the judges took a lawyer in judicial custody for labelling “baseless allegations” against sitting judges. It was only after he tendered an unconditional apology on an affidavit that the court released him with a warning not to repeat such things again.The case was heard thrice in a day, a rarity, and all the times, it was jam-packed with lawyers, litigants and court officials anxiously waiting for the case’s outcome.A division bench comprising justices Zaka Haq and Vinay Deshpande initiated new suo motu contempt proceedings against lawyer Arvind Waghmare after he started making allegations against the judges and asked them to recuse themselves from his case.Waghmare said the judges were deliberately passing adverse orders against him and his clients — Nagorao Ingle, his wife Jyoti and sons Ashish and Nayan. As per his request, the entire proceedings were being video graphed.This is second time in recent times that the HC has initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against a lawyer for similar reasons. Earlier, the HC had initiated contempt cases against lawyer Satish Uke thrice. He was also convicted in the first case, sentenced to two months simple imprisonment and slapped with Rs4.12 lakh fine.Uke’s case was the first one in Nagpur bench’s history to be video recorded. Waghmare’s was the second but it was on his request.“We hope and trust that Waghmare will abide by the undertaking in his affidavit, would not repeat the mistakes and maintain court’s decorum,” said justices Zaka Haq and Vinay Deshpande before dropping the contempt proceedings against Waghmare which were initiated on Tuesday.The bench adjourned hearing of regular criminal contempt (No 2/2018) against him till April first week.In the morning, when the bench started hearing the contempt plea against Waghmare and his clients, the lawyer pressed for video recording of the proceedings and accused the judges of acting against him. His repeated outburst against them led Haq and Joshi to initiate new suo motu contempt proceedings against him.The justices awarded judicial custody to him and directed him to tender an unconditional apology. Before adjourning the hearing till 2.30pm, the judges asked police to take him into custody and made him sit in the registrar’s chamber.When hearing resumed after lunch, Waghmare first tendered an apology. The judges found it to be conditional and severally censured him. They asked him to submit a fresh one or face jail term.The justices sought help from senior counsel Anand Jaiswal, lawyer Firdos Mirza and amicus curiae Rajneesh Vyas, to assist them. The hearing was once again adjourned till 3.50pm for granting another chance to Waghmare to file an apology.After the hearing resumed, Waghmare came out with an unconditional apology where he withdrew all allegations against the judges and requested them with folded hands to pardon him. “We never take pride in sending people to jail. The respondent expressed regret on morning incident. We’ve noticed considerable change in his attitude. Abiding by cardinal principal that sentencing contemnor should be avoided if he tenders an unconditional apology, we drop the contempt notice issued against him,” the judges noted.

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