Gujarat High Court on Tuesday pulled up a cop who was seen drinking Coca-Cola during a court hearing. The bench directed the police officer to distribute 100 cans of Coca-Cola to the members of Bar.
The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J Shastri had sought the appearance of the police officer in question as a respondent.
“He is drinking Coca-Cola during video conferencing. Who is this police officer?” Chief Justice Kumar asked.
Additional Government Pleader (AGP) DM Devnani submitted apologies on behalf of the cop and said, “Convey my sincere apologies. I will just ask him to switch off his video.”
However, CJ refused to ignore the incident and said, “The can shows it is Coca-Cola, we don’t know the contents of it. Is he an IPS officer? Is this the way an officer acts; if he would have been in physical court, would he have come with a ‘Coca-Cola’ can.”
Then, CJ Kumar narrated an incident where an advocate was found eating a samosa during a virtual court hearing.
“One advocate once appeared before us was eating samosa. We said we don’t have any objection to him eating samosa but the only issue was that he cannot eat samosa in front of us and everyone since others are also tempted. Either he should give it to everybody or he shouldn’t eat,” he added.
“He should distribute 100 Cans of ‘Coca-Cola’ to everybody in the Bar Association, otherwise we will ask the Chief Secretary to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. We will not leave him until he complies with this. It should reach by today evening,” CJ to Additional Government Pleader.
“Should (it) be something less harmful than Coca-Cola, maybe lime juice?” Senior Advocate Bhaskar Tanna said.
“Amul Juice. Ask him to arrange Amul Juice,” CJ stated.
The High Court bench also asked AGP to confirm virtually to the Court after receiving the set of cans from the concerned police officer.
