'Unintentional mistake': SC not to act over 'Mr. Put Mine' remark

New Delhi [India], April 15 : Ending all speculation surrounding the "Mr Put Mine" gaffe, which recently grabbed a lot of social media attention, the Supreme Court has decided that it will not take any action against the advocate, his clerk or the court officers.
The top court's order came after the advocate, whose name was recorded in the court document as "Mr Put Mine", tendered his apology.
A bench of Justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol remarked that the incident caused a "lot of embarrassment" to the court but also noted that it was an "unintentional mistake".
The clerical error in the order of the Supreme Court went viral on social media earlier this week where the photograph of the order copy was widely circulated even on social messaging apps such as WhatsApp. This prompted the top court to initiate a suo moto proceeding to find out the source of the error.
"This error in recording 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," the bench stated in its order.
The top court noted that the Advocate on Record, whose name was recorded as "Mr Put Mine", appeared before it along with senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and KV Viswanathan and both of them submitted that the error was caused on account of an "unintentional mistake" committed by his clerk in forwarding the WhatsApp message received from the advocate who wanted his name to be recorded in the record of proceedings.
The bench accepted that "in the facts and circumstances put forward by the senior counsel appearing, there appears to be no mala fide intention on the part of any of the advocate or the clerk or the Court Officer."
It took into note that the advocate in question was a young lawyer who had tendered an unqualified apology for the embarrassment caused to the apex court.
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 proceeding, the order of the apex court stated.
"Inadvertently, the message as received was forwarded and put in portal appearance online and proceedings were generated with the name "Mr Put Mine, Advocate". Accordingly, the Court Officer recorded the same as generated in the record of proceedings," the order further added.
In view of the apology tendered by the lawyer, the bench stated that no further action of any kind was warranted either against the advocate, clerk or court officers and closed the matter both on the judicial as well as administrative side.
"Accordingly we close this matter on the judicial as well as on the administrative side. Revised Record of Proceeding dated March 17, 2023, be issued by deleting the name "Mr Put Mine, Advocate"," the order added.