Supreme Court: After a ‘bona fide’ mistake by an Advocate-on-Record’s clerk that led to a series of jokes on the internet, the bench of Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol, JJ has accepted the unconditional apology and has directed that no further action be taken either against the Advocate on Record, the Clerk or the Court Officers.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, recently, in a matter one of the advocates of the petitioner was recorded as “Mr. Put Mine, Advocate”.
Taking note of the mistake that caused lot of embarrassment to the Court as the same was widely circulated on WhatsApp and other social media, the Court initiated proceedings suo moto, wherein it was told that an unintentional mistake was committed by the clerk of the Advocate on Record in forwarding the WhatsApp message received from the advocate who wanted his name to be recorded in the Record of Proceeding dated 17.03.2023. The message received by the Clerk on WhatsApp was “Put Mine” though actually what he wanted to communicate was that his name be also recorded in the proceeding.
Inadvertently, the message as received was forwarded and put in portal appearance online and proceedings were generated with the name “Mr. Put Mine, Advocate”. Accordingly, the Court Officer recorded the same as generated in record of proceedings.
Finding no mala fide intention on the part of any of the Advocate or the clerk or the Court Officer, the Court accepted the apology and directed that revised Record of Proceeding dated 17.03.2023 be issued by deleting the name “Mr. Put Mine, Advocate”.
[Ravindra Shah v. State of Maharashtra, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 434, decided on 13-04-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner(s) Mr. Mukul Rohtagi, Sr. Adv. Mr. K.V. Viswanathan, Sr. Adv. Mrs. V. Mohana, Sr. Adv. Ms. Jayasree Narasimhan, AOR Dr. Sarvam Ritam Khare, Adv.;
For Respondent(s) Mr. Anand Dilip Landge, AOR.
