The corridors of the Supreme Court recently had an unusual security breach when a lunchbox was stolen–by a monkey. Bystander footage shows advocates watching on as one of at least two visiting monkeys was caught on camera searching through a tote bag and attempting to open the tiffin inside it.
Senior Supreme Court Advocate Sanjay Hegde shared the video on X, formerly Twitter. In the clip, the monkey can be seen stealing the bag from a shelf outside a courtroom. After inspecting it, the animal makes its way across an arched corridor to sit on the parapet.
Many of the lawyers on the Tilak Marg premises, who happened to be there, started filming as the monkey business unfolded before their eyes. For about half a minute, the primate tried to remove the lunchbox from the tiffin bag, which it then dropped from the ledge.
The video captures the monkey struggling to find a way to open the box.
The corridors of the Supreme Court had got some unusual visitors recently pic.twitter.com/nTxLNi8SNQ
— SANJAY HEGDE (@sanjayuvacha) October 5, 2024
Social media users commenting on the clip had some tongue-in-cheek takes on the incident.
“Was it carrying any brief? Because some Lawyers never pass on. They just replace their outer rendering,” wrote said.
“Heartening to see the quality of visitors getting better for a change,” said another.
A third commented: “Be careful in disseminating this, one group shall come out saying Lord Ram sends his diplomat.”
It remains unknown whether the monkey was able to walk away with the meal or it gave up in frustration.
The incident comes on the heels of a Delhi High Court directive asking the administration to deal with the “monkey menace” in the city.
“Civic agencies should carry out a year-long public awareness campaign to inform people how their feeding does not benefit the monkeys but only harms them by increasing their dependence on humans,” the court said.
In 2022, the Rhesus macaque, a common species of monkey in Delhi, was delisted from the Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. This means it no longer has the level protection that many endangered species on the list do.
Authorities can now approach monkeys the same way they do with stray cats and dogs.