Suspended lawyer M Ravi has been sentenced to 21 days in prison for contempt of court.

He was found guilty of nine instances of contempt, according to the judgment that was made publicly available on Nov. 8.

Four instances were committed before District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt at the State Courts, while the remaining five were committed before Justice Audrey Lim at the High Court.

All of the offences took place in the month of November 2021.

What happened at the State Courts?

On Nov. 3, 2021, Magendran Muniady's lawyer applied to discharge himself.

Magendran had claimed trial to certain criminal charges.

Ravi appeared before Chay on Nov. 8, 2021, to confirm that he was taking over the case from Magendran's previous lawyer.

When Chay asked Ravi if the trial could proceed as scheduled on Nov. 9, Ravi informed the judge that he was not involved in any other hearings.

Around half an hour later, Ravi appeared before another judge for an unrelated criminal case to confirm his representation at a trial for one of the accused persons, with trial dates including the period Nov. 8 to Nov. 10.

Ravi did not appear before Chay on Nov. 9 and instead went for the other trial.

He subsequently showed up before Chay later in the morning and applied for an adjournment.

Ravi accuses Chay of being "biased" against him

When Chay questioned why Ravi had been "double fixed" for two trials, Ravi proceeded to accuse Chay of being "biased" against him and asked Chay to "discharge" himself.

Ravi also interrupted the judge while he was talking to Magendran.

The case was eventually adjourned to the next day, on Nov. 10.

The next day, Chay dismissed Ravi's application for the case's referral to the High Court.

Ravi further alleged that the judge was "in contempt of court" and left the courtroom.

He did not return.

Magendran then told Chay that he was prepared to represent himself.

What happened at the High Court?

On Nov. 22, 2021, Ravi appeared before Lim to represent Chua Qwong Meng, a former bus driver.

Chua and 12 other drivers had filed a lawsuit against SBS Transit about working hours and overtime pay.

SBS Transit was represented by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh.

During the trial, Ravi accused Lim of being "biased" and siding with Singh.

He also applied for Lim to disqualify herself.

Lim rejected the application.

Told the judge to not be "rude"

Ravi also repeatedly interrupted Lim during the hearing, calling her an "interrogator", labelling her cross-examination directions as against "international human rights law", and telling her "don't be rude".

He also interrupted the judge while she attempted to explain to Chua what was happening through the court interpreter and told her that he would no longer be part of the proceedings along with his client.

Chua fired Ravi later in the afternoon for his "embarrassing behaviour at trial" and replaced him with lawyer Lim Tean.

Ravi admits that he forgot to take his medication

The Attorney-General (AG) sought a jail term of five weeks for Ravi.

In her judgment, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng wrote that it is not in dispute that Ravi was suffering from a hypomanic episode of bipolar disorder at the material time and that this contributed to his offending conduct.

However, the position of the AG is that the mitigating weight of Ravi's bipolar disorder is limited, as it did not significantly impair his ability to exercise self-control and restraint.

Meanwhile, Ravi, who represented himself, argued that imprisonment should only be imposed as a last resort and described the AG as "overzealous".

Ravi also admitted to being non-compliant with his medication regime, saying that he had "forgotten to take medications on some days".

In addition, Ravi had emphasised the high level of stress he was under at the time of his actions as a result of his pro bono representation of 27 individuals awaiting capital punishment.

Such stress affected his emotional state, and he was experiencing "heightened emotions".

Judge: Mitigating effect of Ravi's bipolar disorder far outweighed by severity of his actions

As for Hoo, she wrote that while she agreed Ravi's disorder had a "contributory link" to his conduct, she is unable to accept that the culpability for his contemptuous acts is "significantly reduced" by his disorder.

The mitigating effect of his disorder is "far outweighed" by the severity of his offending acts, given that he was a senior lawyer carrying out his professional duties, had related antecedents of misconduct and showed a lack of remorse, she added.

These are "clear aggravating factors," Hoo said.

Previous sanctions imposed on Ravi over similar behaviour in the courtroom, including financial penalties, have also not deterred him.

In a Facebook post on Nov. 8, 2023, Ravi described the sentence of 21 days' jail as "very harsh" but added that he would not appeal against it.

Top screenshot from The Online Citizen video