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Sudhendu Prakash Gautam v. S.L. Chaudhary

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 791Decided 30 Jul 2026
Civil Appeal No. 7171 of 2012
Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra · Justice Shree Chandrashekhar

Background

The respondent complained to the Bar Council of Delhi in 2005 that the appellant, an advocate representing the opposing party in a labour court case, had physically assaulted him, verbally abused him, and threatened to kill him inside the court premises after the respondent's application was dismissed, and had also pressured him to withdraw a related complaint. The Bar Council of India's Disciplinary Committee found the appellant guilty of professional misconduct and suspended him from practice for one year, and the appellant challenged that order before the Supreme Court, partly on the ground that he was denied a fair hearing when his request for an adjournment was refused.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed that the appellant had not been properly heard when his adjournment request was rejected, but declined to send the matter back given that about 21 years had already passed since the original complaint. On the merits, it held that indecent or violent behaviour by a lawyer inside court premises is professional misconduct under the Advocates Act even when directed at an opposing litigant rather than the lawyer's own client, though the separate criminal aspect of the incident (which had also been reported to police) was outside the Bar Council's disciplinary jurisdiction. Considering the case had dragged on so long and the appellant was not the respondent's own counsel, the Court modified the punishment from a one-year suspension to a formal warning that he must always behave properly in court premises.

Lesson Learnt

Lawyers owe a duty of decent, restrained conduct inside court premises to everyone they encounter there, not just their own clients: misbehaviour toward an opposing party is professional misconduct in its own right.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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