Watch: Senior advocate caught smoking hookah during virtual hearing, video goes viral

Team Udayavani, Aug 13, 2020, 4:16 PM IST

Image: Screengrab Twitter video

New Delhi: A video of a senior lawyer, smoking hookah during a virtual hearing of a case on Thursday has gone viral on social media.

The incident occurred when the plea challenging merger of six BSP MLAs with Congress was taken up for hearing before the Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court.

In the video, the advocate Rajeev Dhavan is seen holding some documents in front of his face as lawyer Kapil Sibal argues. While his face remains hidden behind the documents, rings of smoke are visible in the clip, which has gone viral.

Later while shuffling the papers held by him, Dhawan is seen smoking the hookah. It is not known if the high court bench, which took objection when Dhavan’s video suddenly disappeared during the hearing, had noticed him smoking the hookah.

Rajeev Dhawan smoking hookah during a virtual court hearing regarding disqualification of 6 BSP MLAs in Rajasthan. What a way to show respect to d court!@nehaltyagi08 @tanyatyagii @Bholenath @KpNationalist@Abhina_Prakash @AshishJaggi_1@bhartijainTOI@rahulroushan @PraveenaP96 pic.twitter.com/XeckIazXay

— Rana Dushyant Pratap Singh (@imranadushyant) August 12, 2020

Virtual hearing of cases were taken up by courts amid the pandemic. In June, the apex court observed that lawyers appearing in matters via video- conferencing should be “presentable” and avoid showing images which are not appropriate.

The order was passed after a lawyer appeared in a virtual hearing in the Supreme Court while lying on bed and donning a T-shirt

“This court is of the view that when counsel appear in court video hearings, they should be presentable and avoid showing images, which are not appropriate and can only be tolerable in the privacy of their homes,” the SC had noted in its June 15 order.