Video conferencing (VC) hearings before several benches of the Delhi High Court, including that of the Chief Justice, were suspended on Wednesday after a user logged in while Shitjeet Singh played pornographic content.
The incident, which took place in the court of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, happened three times. The first disruption occurred around 12.56pm, after which the VC session was briefly suspended and then resumed. However, minutes later, the user played the content again, putting the proceedings on hold for a longer period.
When the VC was restarted a second time, the screen initially remained blank before becoming visible to participants. But shortly afterwards, the user played pornographic content with a voice in the background saying: “This is a hack from the US. Stop the meeting now, and don’t play it again. You’ve been hacked.”
The entire VC proceedings were then closed and were not resumed until the court resumed after lunch at around 2.30pm.
However, despite the disruption, physical court proceedings continued uninterrupted.
Following the incident, the Delhi High Court administration filed a complaint with the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit of the Delhi Police, officials familiar with the matter said, adding that an investigation is underway.
The chief justice said he had issued administrative directions to Registrar General Arun Bharadwaj to take action to restrict the publication of videos of court proceedings, including pornographic content. The Chief Justice said that under the rules, recording court proceedings is prohibited.
“Administratively, I have already issued instructions to the RG. We are making an application with the mechanism available for the same. As per the rules, registration is prohibited. It is against the rules and as per the norms, I have already issued instructions to the RG, and it will be done,” the chief justice said.
This came after Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma mentioned the case in the post-lunch session before the bench of Chief Justice Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia, and informed the court that the incident did not only happen in the Chief Justice’s court but in other courts as well. He stressed that this affected the sanctity and integrity of the institution, and urged the court to direct the immediate removal of the content and prevent its further publication.
This is certainly not the first time such an incident has taken place in the Delhi High Court. In September 2024, court proceedings were disrupted by an unknown criminal who logged into its WebEx meeting platform and played pornographic video content in four courtrooms.
Virtual hearings also presented challenges for judges in maintaining court decorum. In many cases, the court has initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against attorneys for inappropriate online conduct.
A woman, an Indian national living in Australia, who joined the proceedings before the Delhi High Court through video conferencing in one of her cases, found herself in the dock for using offensive language while not being muted during the hearing in 2024. The Supreme Court, shocked by her behaviour, initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the woman, demanding her personal appearance before it.
