Lawyer caught on webcam with staffer agrees to pay her Rs 4 lakh

An advocate, who was seen in a compromising position with a woman staffer during a virtual court proceeding, was directed by a division bench of the Madras High Court to pay Rs 4 lakh to the woman as compensation.

“We felt that ‘X’, the lady, who was found in the impugned video, deserves to be handsomely compensated. When we proposed this to the counsel for the respondent/contemnor, he offered to pay a sum of Rs 4 lakh as compensation to ‘X’. Therefore, the court directs the contemnor to obtain a demand draft for Rs 4 lakh in the name of the lady, which we do not want to disclose in the order,” said the bench consisting Justice PN Prakash and Justice AA Nakkiran.

The advocate was asked to deposit the DD to the member-secretary of TNLSA within two weeks.

The judges issued the direction while reserving orders on the suo-motu criminal contempt proceedings initiated against the lawyer, RD Santhanakrishnan, on December 21. The case was then posted on April 5.

The proceedings were initiated after a video captured by webcam was circulated on social media, which showed the lawyer in a compromising position with the woman during the VC proceedings.

After the court initiated the suo-motu proceedings, the CB-CID booked him under Sections 228, 292 (2) (a) and 294 (a) IPC and Section 67-A of the Information Technology Act, 2008, and arrested him. He was later released on bail on February 2.