A criminal lawyer collapsed at the Calcutta metropolitan magistrate’s court allegedly after being shouted at by a judge on Wednesday afternoon.

Colleagues said Swapan Chakraborty, 54, passed out after leaving the courtroom of fifth magistrate Sulagna Dastidar. He was taken to the court’s medical unit, where a doctor advised hospitalisation.

Chakraborty was then taken to Medical College and Hospital. Medical superintendent Anup Roy said the lawyer had suffered a head injury. “We are waiting for the CT scan report. But his condition is not alarming.”

Lawyers present in the courtroom while Chakraborty was arguing a case under the National Instruments Act said the magistrate suddenly refused to listen to him.

“The magistrate told him that he was ignorant about law. When Chakraborty tried to persuade her to hear him out, the magistrate asked him to leave the room. Seeing the lawyer standing still, the judge asked an orderly to throw him out,” said a witness who did not want to be named.

The incident infuriated the lawyers of the metropolitan magistrate’s court. “Some magistrates malign lawyers in the open court without any reason. They should learn a lesson from Wednesday’s incident,” said a lawyer.

A spokesperson for the Judicial Services Association, a body of judges in lower courts, termed Chakraborty’s passing out unfortunate but added that altercations were common during hearings.

This was not the first time that lawyers vented their ire on judges for their alleged misbehaviour.

A few months ago, around 200 lawyers of the Alipore court had gheraoed a judge till late at night for his alleged misbehaviour. Police had to be called in to rescue him.

Ashok Deb, a member of the West Bengal Bar Council, called for cordial relations between the bar and the bench for smooth functioning of the judiciary.

“The key to proper functioning of the judicial system is cordial relationship between judges and lawyers. The two should respect each other.”