Today, the Chief Justice of India reprimanded an Advocate in his courtroom for using a mobile phone to make a call and asked the Advocate to surrender the mobile phone to the Court Master. The Advocate then surrendered his mobile phone that he used inside the courtroom.

The bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra was in the midst of a hearing when the CJI spotted an Advocate using his phone to make a call inside the courtroom.

Annoyed by the behaviour, the CJI shouted, "Aye... Mr... Yeh Market hai kya? Jo Aap Yahan Baat Kar Rahien Hain?" (Mr…Is this a market? Where you can talk on your phone). The CJI further asked the Advocate to submit his phone to the Court Master.

Reprimanding the Advocate, CJI stated, "Come here... come and stand here.. you think this is some marketplace where you can just take the call?" Accordingly, the CJI directed the Advocate to deposit his mobile with the Court Master and asked the Counsel to be careful in the future.

The CJI further added, "Judges notice everything that is going on in the Court. Don't think we only concentrate on the file... We concentrate on the file, but..... We are keeping an eye on what is happening in the Court."

In March this year, the CJI had said while speaking at a public function that internet facilities should be set up within the courtrooms for lawyers to use. Reminiscing of the era when mobile phones were banned in many courtrooms, he said "and here we are today releasing a mobile application for the High Court."

"I said that we are carrying our discipline too far; a lawyer working on an iPad within the precincts of a courtroom should be allowed to work on it so long as they are not watching movies from the iPad or their laptops," the CJI had said. "We must set up internet facilities within our courtrooms and of course have adequately maintained firewalls so that the facility is put to genuine and authorised use," he had said.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud

Ramey Krishan Rana