Law student arrested for verbally abusing CJI Surya Kant, throwing papers in courtroom

The Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested a law student who verbally abused Chief Justice Surya Kant on July 10 and threw papers inside a Supreme Court courtroom, ANI reported.

Prabal Pratap Singh was arrested along with another law student, Chander Bhan. Both are students at Lucknow University and were co-petitioners in the case that was being heard in the Supreme Court at the time of the incident.

Kant was not part of the bench that was hearing the matter.

When the hearing had begun that day, Singh said: “Mr judicial servant, I order you to order the registration of an FIR [first information report] against the assistant commissioner of police of Lucknow…”

Justices KV Vishwanathan had asked, “You are ordering me? You are ordering us?”

Singh replied: “That is all from my side. Everything is on record.”

In videos of the proceedings widely shared online, Singh can be seen throwing the case papers in the air and is heard verbally abusing Kant in the courtroom, after which he was escorted out by security personnel.

The bench noted that Singh, who was representing himself in a case, had made “incoherent and unparliamentary utterances” instead of presenting his argument.

However, the court decided not to initiate contempt proceedings “considering the condition of the petitioner”. The court had not elaborated on what condition it was referring to.

After the Supreme Court’s observation, the police said that the students were medically examined at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences and were declared mentally sound, NDTV reported. Police also found pamphlets containing allegedly objectionable language in their possession, the news outlet reported.

A case was registered at the Tilak Marg Police Station following a complaint from the Supreme Court security staff about the July 10 incident.

Edited by Sneha.