'Mr. Put Mine error caused embarrassment', SC accepts apology of advocate

New Delhi, April 15 The Supreme Court has accepted the apology of an advocate, whose name in the order of proceedings was recorded as 'Mr. Put Mine', while noting that the mistake was unintentional.

A bench comprising justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol said: "This error in the recording of the proceedings of the said date has caused a lot of embarrassment to this court as the same has been widely circulated on WhatsApp and other social media platforms."

An advocate has to fill up an appearance slip with the name of the counsel representing the party, which is recorded by the court officer. In this matter, besides giving the name of another counsel, the lawyer asked the court staff to record the 'put mine' name, which was literally recorded.

The bench said, "The Advocate on Record present before us is a young lawyer and has tendered unqualified apology for the embarrassment caused to this court on account of bona fide mistake in the record of proceedings."

The apex court initiated suo motu proceedings in the matter after noticing that the name of one of the advocates of the petitioner was recorded as "Mr. Put Mine, Advocate" in the record of proceedings dated March 17.

In an order passed on April 13, the top court said: "Advocate on Record of the petitioner is present before us along with learned senior counsels Mukul Rohatgi and K.V. Viswanathan. Both of them have stated before us that on account of an unintentional mistake committed by the clerk of the advocate on record in forwarding the WhatsApp message/communication received from the advocate who wanted his name to be recorded in the record of proceeding dated 17.03.2023, the message received by the clerk on WhatsApp was 'Put Mine' though actually what he wanted to communicate was that his name be also recorded in the proceedings."

The bench noted that inadvertently, the message as received was forwarded and put in portal appearance online and proceedings were generated with the name "Mr. Put Mine, Advocate" and the court officer recorded the same as generated in the record of proceedings.

The bench said: "The Advocate on Record present before us is a young lawyer and has tendered unqualified apology for the embarrassment caused to this court on account of bona fide mistake in the record of proceedings... Two learned senior counsel have also vehemently requested us to accept the apology."

The bench observed that there appears to be no mala fide intention on the part of any of the advocate or clerk or the court officer.

"We accept the apology. We further make it clear that once the mistake was unintentional and due to an inadvertence without any motive or mala fide intention, and we have accepted the apology tendered, no further action of any kind is warranted either against the Advocate on Record, clerk or the court officers," the bench noted.

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