Delhi High Court Reprimands Student for Initiating Private Correspondence through Email with A Judge

Delhi High Court Reprimands Student for Initiating Private Correspondence through Email with A Judge

The Delhi High Court reprimanded a student for initiating private correspondence through email addressed to a judge and directed the said student to file an affidavit stating the circumstances in which this e-mail was sent.

A Single Judge Court of Justice Prateek Jalan in the High Court of Delhi, dealt with the matter titled The Institution of Engineers (India) v. Union Of India & Ors.

The petition had been filed by the Petitioner – The Institution of Engineers (India) seeking reliefs regarding their candidature and ineligibility. The Court did not go into the facts of the case and recited instances where emails were sent by one such Student – Applicant to the personal email id of the judge along with another email addressed to the Registrar (Vigilance) of this Court.

The extract of one such email is listed below:

"Respected Sir,

Pl save the lakh of life as we are drowning in the dearth of de morality, perplexed, and also hopelessness. On behalf of thousands of students.

Regards, Subrata Pramanik"

The Court observed that this appeared to be an attempt to pressurise or embarrass the Court, which required to be severely deprecated. It directed the said student to file an affidavit stating the circumstances in which this e-mail was addressed, while making the following observation:

"A pending litigation cannot become the subject matter of private correspondence addressed by a litigant to the judge. Whatever be the contentions of a party, they must be addressed at the hearing or by way of a properly constituted filing in the pending petition, with notice to the other parties."

The Court concluded that it would decide whether any further action was required, including initiation of contempt proceedings against the said student based on the affidavit filed by him.