Man seen kissing a woman during virtual court hearing is not a judge

by Ankita Mahalanobish

A 13-second clip, seemingly of a virtual court hearing, went viral after it showed a man in legal attire kissing a woman. Social media users sharing the video claimed that the man was a judge selected by the collegium — a system through which senior judges recommend appointments and transfers of other judges in the country.

On October 15, X user @arunpudur shared the video, alleging that a judge selected by the collegium was “caught in 4k” exploiting a worker. (Archive)

At the time of writing this, the post garnered over 300,000 views.

Readers should note that Alt News has debunked several false claims peddled by this X user.

Another X user, Shonee Kapoor (@ShoneeKapoor), shared the video clip with a sarcastic remark: “Welcome to Digital India Justice”. (Archive)

The post was viewed 2.9 million times at the time of writing this.

Several other users shared the clip with similar claims: 

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Fact Check

We noticed that the viral video was a recording of a live hearing. Apart from the man, the hearing window had another participant whose camera was not switched on. Their username was displayed as “Court of HMJ Jyoti Singh”. Justice Jyoti Singh is a women judge at the Delhi High Court.

So, that made it clear that the man kissing a woman during the virtual hearing was not a judge. The proceeding was led by a woman judge named Jyoti Singh. 

A relevant keyword search led us to a report by Bar and Bench. According to this, the clip was from a virtual hearing on October 14, 2025. The report corroborated that the man in question was a lawyer, not a judge. 

It is also worth noting that X user Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) tried to target the collegium system through the incident by highlighting that the individual was a judge chosen by the collegium. Several sections of pro-BJP social media users often criticise the collegium. BJP leaders have been opposing this model for judicial appointments for a while. 

The BJP government even sought to replace the collegium system with the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC), comprising a six-member body including judges, the law minister, and two “eminent persons” to recommend judicial appointments. It was struck down by the Supreme Court in the Fourth Judge Case in 2015.  4:1 majority, stating the NJAC “violated the basic structure of the Constitution” by compromising judicial independence. The inclusion of “eminent persons” and the executive’s role, including the law minister and administrative control, would open the door to political influence in judicial selections.

To sum up, claims that the man seen kissing a woman during a virtual hearing is a judge are false; they seem to be an attempt to malign the judiciary appointment system. According to our fact check, the judge for that session was Justice Jyoti Singh of the Delhi high court and the man seen in the viral video is a lawyer.

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