The Supreme Court on Friday asked Jharkhand High Court to take a “sympathetic” view of the alleged contempt committed by an advocate who had argued with a judge.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the Jharkhand-based lawyer, Mahesh Tiwari, to tender an unconditional apology before the five-judge high court bench that had issued a contempt notice against him in October last year.

“If he feels he has done nothing wrong, then he should have the courage to go and contest, but if he thinks he was wrong, he should go and apologise,” the CJI orally told senior advocate Siddarth Dave, appearing for the lawyer.

Dave submitted that the petitioner was “extremely repentant” and prepared to tender an unconditional apology.

The apex court passed the direction on Tiwari’s appeal challenging the suo motu criminal contempt proceeding initiated by the high court following a viral courtroom exchange where Tiwari allegedly told a judge, “Don’t cross the limit”.

“Aggrieved by the criminal contempt notice, the petitioner is before us... while explaining at length that the petitioner did not mean to cause disrespect to Hon’ble judge or obstruct the judicial proceedings… the learned senior counsel submits that the petitioner is extremely repentant and is willing to render an unconditional apology.

“Having regard to the above-mentioned stand, we dispose of this with liberty to the petitioner to submit an affidavit of unconditional apology before the high court. We request the high court to consider the apology sympathetically,” the top court said.

Justice Bagchi also referred to the declining standards of courtroom decorum. “In every strata of judiciary... there are issues that creation of friction becomes a matter of professional pride,” he said.