The Supreme Court has affirmed the Delhi High Court's sentencing of a lawyer to six months in jail for committing criminal contempt. The lawyer was found guilty of making "scandalous, unwarranted, and baseless imputations" against several judges of the Delhi High Court and district courts in the national capital.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, deemed the Delhi High Court's decision as "justified." However, considering that the contemnor had tendered a written apology and retracted objectionable remarks against the judges and the judiciary, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to the period already undergone by the advocate.

Senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, representing the lawyer, informed the bench about the written apology submitted before all the concerned judges. The bench acknowledged the subsequent developments and concluded that, while the Delhi High Court's order was justified, the sentence would be mitigated due to the apology.

The Supreme Court had previously directed the lawyer to issue a proper unconditional apology to the targeted judges on January 16, expressing dissatisfaction with the initial apology's nature. The Delhi High Court had convicted the lawyer of contempt on January 9, imposing a six-month imprisonment term and a fine of Rs 2,000. The court also ordered the lawyer to be taken into custody and handed over to the superintendent of Tihar jail.

In its verdict, the Delhi High Court emphasized the need to address such "contumacious allegations" firmly, especially when made by an officer of the court. The lawyer had filed a plea in July 2022 before a single-judge bench of the high court, accusing several judges of acting arbitrarily, whimsically, or in a biased manner, and naming them in his petition.