A lawyer, who was in jail for the last four months for sending an "indecent" birthday message to a woman judge, has been granted bail by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. If he is found to approach the judge directly or indirectly or tries to stalk her, the bail order shall stand cancelled, the Indore bench of the court said.

Justice Subodh Abhyankar passed the order during a virtual hearing of Yadav's second bail application. On April 27, the high court dismissed his first bail application.

The lawyer - Vijay Singh Yadav - allegedly downloaded a photo of the judge from her Facebook account and used it to make a greeting card which he then sent to her on her official email address on January 29. He was arrested on February 9. 

Ratlam Police booked the lawyer under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forging documents) and others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides relevant sections of the IT act on a complaint lodged by a district court official, according to reports.

"The application filed by the applicant (lawyer) is allowed, subject to the condition that if it is found that the applicant in any manner directly or indirectly tried to approach the concerned judge (the victim) and tries to stalk



her in any manner, this order shall stand cancelled without further reference to the court and the police shall be entitled to arrest the applicant in the present case,' the high court said, according to news  on Saturday.  

Meanwhile, Yadav's counsel KK Gupta said that since his client does not have a criminal background, is a lawyer, has undertaken that he would never try to approach the concerned judge and would not practice in her court in the future and has tendered an unconditional apology, his bail application should not be rejected. 

State's counsel Kushagra Jain opposed Yadav's bail plea in view of his "conduct'. However, after hearing the applicant and the respondent, the court allowed Yadav's bail application on a personal bond of ₹50,000.

'Having considered the rival submissions, on perusal of the case diary including the message sent by the applicant, this court is of the considered opinion that since the charge sheet has already been filed and the applicant in jail since February 9, 2021, he has also tendered unconditional apology and the final conclusion of the trial is likely to take sufficient long time due to fresh spread of Covid-19, in the considered opinion of this court, the applicant's application deserves to be allowed,' the court said.