New Delhi: “Judges shouldn’t consider themselves as gods,” senior advocate of the Allahabad high court Anil Tiwari told The Wire on Thursday (July 11).
This was the second day that the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) of Allahabad abstained from judicial work accusing judges of misconduct towards lawyers and failure of the court administration to address their grievances.
Tiwari, the president of the HCBA, Allahabad said their protest was against the “Bhagwan syndrome” (god syndrome) that plagued many judges. He underlined that certain judges in the high court misbehaved with lawyers and even insulting them during hearings. “They should realise they are humans and public servants,” Tiwari said, accusing judges of using threatening and demeaning language in court towards advocates.
On July 9, the HCBA submitted a memorandum of grievances to Allahabad high court chief justice Arun Bhansali listing the reasons why they would abstain from judicial work on the next day. On July 10, a delegation of the bar association met Bhansali and five other judges but since the lawyers got no “positive assurance” they decided to abstain from work even on July 11, said the HCBA after its meeting.
The HCBA passed a resolution on July 11, following an executive body meeting, declaring that lawyers would henceforth refrain from addressing judges as ‘milords’ or ‘your lordship’.
The HCBA also decided that it would abstain from work for a third day, on July 12. “The high court is not a temple of justice rather is a court of justice and the judges are also the public servants for which they are being paid from the public exchequer and are appointed to serve the public at large,” said the HCBA in its latest resolution.
“We refuse to recognise them as God,” it mentioned, adding that the advocates of the bar association would be permitted to use the salutations such as “Sir”, “Your Honour” or “Mannaniya (Honourable)”.
In its memorandum to the chief justice on July 9, the HCBA flagged the “court conduct” of a judge, justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, saying that justice Agarwal’s court conduct was against the “settled procedure and old tradition” of the high court.
The HCBA accused justice Agarwal of making “insulting remarks” against lawyers and not following the mandate of the Supreme Court in the Pradhani Jain Vs Odisha (Criminal Appeal) case in which the apex court had ruled that all bail applications filed by the different accused in the same FIR should be listed before the same judge.
Justice Agarwal was in news recently when he dismissed a bail plea of a person accused of converting a group of Hindus to Christianity in Uttar Pradesh while observing that if the trend of religious conversions did not stop, the majority population of the country would become a minority one day.
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The United Christian Forum, an organisation that speaks for Christians, expressed “deep anguish” over the judge’s remarks and urged the court to “suo motu expunge the sweeping allegations made against the entire Christian community,” arguing that it had “dangerous ramifications.”
The second issue raised by the HCBA was “some judges” did not behave properly with lawyers and were “rather insulting” in their behaviour. “Resentment in entire BAR is rising (sic),” said the HCBA, adding that despite requesting the chief justice to intervene in the matter in the past, the same situation still prevailed.
The HCBA also said that many judges do not follow the “very old tradition” of the high court of revising the list of fresh cases or of unlisted cases. “Your lordship is well aware that nowadays the high court is stretched very far and it has become very difficult for many advocates, especially the advocates having more than 60 years of age to attend all the courts at the single point of time. Therefore, we demand to restore the tradition of this hon’ble court for revising calls in all courts practically and not symbolically,” said the HCBA.
The HCBA highlighted the issue of the Allahabad high court’s registry not providing it the data of the advocate roll numbers. “It is the duty of the Bar to enforce the provision of ‘One Bar One Vote’ and to protect and to safeguard the administration of justice by removing unwanted persons and nuisance from the role members of the Bar, who have got membership by concealing material facts and also got the Advocate Roll Number from the hon’ble high court but the court administration is not cooperating,” said the HCBA.
While declaring the call to abstain from work, the HSBA warned lawyers that if any one of them was found in the court contrary to the Bar’s resolution, his or her membership would be cancelled after issuing them a show cause notice.
Tiwari said the HCBA had issued notices to 20-22 lawyers, including a chief standing counsel, for violating the resolution.
“The judiciary is collapsing from inside. It is up to the Bar association to protect justice and rule of law,” said Tiwari, emphasising that it was necessary to rid some judges of their “Bhagwan syndrome”.
In its resolution on July 11, the HCBA underlined that those lawyers violating its protest would not only lose their Bar membership but would also be deprived of other benefits, including preference for securing chambers, and blacklisted from becoming members of the Bar in the future.
