00:00The story that we are breaking right at the very top, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a short while ago spoken to the Chief Justice of India, V.R. Gavai, this on a day when a shoe was hurled in the open court against the Chief Justice.
00:14The Prime Minister has made it clear that the attack on the Chief Justice has angered every Indian. There is no place, he says, for such reprehensible acts in our society.
00:24The Prime Minister says the attack on the Chief Justice is utterly condemnable. Rahul Gandhi, too, has dived in, says hatred has no place in our nation.
00:35Sources say that Chief Justice of India doesn't want action against the lawyer. The Bar Council has already suspended the lawyer, Rakesh Kishore, a septuagenarian, so someone who's been experienced in the court.
00:47The lawyer has claimed he won't tolerate the insult of Sanatan Dharma. This follows an observation made by the Chief Justice in a case involving a Vishnu idol a couple of weeks ago.
01:00Joining us now is Anisha Mathur, our legal editor who tracks the Supreme Court for us.
01:05Anisha, give us a sense now of what the Chief Justice is and what the Bar Council and the bench have decided. Is this incident now forgotten or is there going to be an attempt to order up some kind of an investigation into it?
01:22Well, Rajdeep, these are two separate actions that can be taken. The Chief Justice, because remember when this man hurled whatever he did at the Chief Justice's dais, he was immediately apprehended.
01:33On that, because the Chief Justice would have had to pass directions to register an FIR or take any action or even register a contempt of court case against him, the Chief Justice has reportedly told senior officials, and this is coming to us from senior officials of the court, that plea, just ignore it.
01:51Things like this keep happening. We don't want anything.
01:53However, since this was an action undertaken by a lawyer inside the Supreme Court of India, premises, the Bar Council of Delhi, Bar Council of India has stepped in.
02:05They have issued an order to suspend his license as a lawyer at the moment and at least for the next 15 days.
02:11This person, Rakesh Rishore cannot appear before any court or tribunal. He cannot claim to be a lawyer. His license is suspended.
02:19In fact, he's been issued a show cause notice as to why he should not be permanently disbarred in India.
02:26We've already also been speaking to the Bar Council of Delhi as well as the Bar Council of India representatives.
02:30They're saying that they will be taking the strictest possible actions against this person because he has done what he has done as a lawyer, as an officer of the court, which is completely unacceptable.
02:41And Rajdeep, if you look at the statements that have come out from the Bar Council, from the Supreme Court Bar Association, from various bar organizations in the country,
02:50there has been an absolutely unequivocal condemnation of what has been done.
02:54In fact, the Bar Council has also said that they will be taking action.
02:58The Karkaduma Bar, where this person is a Bar Association member, has also said they will be taking some action.
03:05Investigation is being done against him and a show cause notice has been issued.
03:08So while the Chief Justice has chosen not to take the actions that he is entitled to take against this person who attacked him,
03:16the Bar is in fact taking action and that is what we are being informed.
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