Suva lawyer Richard Naidu in Court today.

The Suva High Court has this morning set aside the case against prominent Suva Lawyer, Richard Naidu.

The Judge ruled that no conviction is to be recorded and the charge be dismissed.

Naidu was initially found guilty of contempt and scandalizing the court in November last year.

Richard Naidu with his lawyer Jon Apted in court today. 

The committal proceedings had stemmed from a post on Naidu’s Facebook page, in which he made comments about the judiciary following a case in February.

The grounds of committal were that the Facebook post sought to ridicule the presiding judicial officer, for misspelling the word “injunction” as “injection”.

The committal proceeding was brought against the Suva lawyer by the then Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar this morning said the previous Judge who was presiding over the case resigned without concluding the case.

Justice Goundar says the new Attorney General took a different position and expressed his desire for the case to be dismissed.

He says Attorney General Siromi Turaga, in his view, highlighted that charges against Naidu should never have been instituted.

Goundar adds that after going through all the circumstances of the case, he has decided not to record the conviction and dismiss the charge of contempt to scandalise the court.

He says the order does not reflect the respondents’ rights to appeal in any manner whatsoever.

The order also requires parties to bear their own costs.