BCI Chairman Condemns Senior Counsel’s Open Letters to CJI DY Chandrachud, Terms It as Contemptuous Conduct

(Judicial Quest News Network)

Chairman Bar Council of Inda (BCI) and Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra on Saturday Strongly condemned the letter addressed to CJI by Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave.

Expressing concern about a recent letter to the CJI over the listing of sensitive cases pending before the Supreme Court.

Last week Mr. Dushyant Dave had written an open letter addressed to CJI claiming that many cases which were being heard by certain benches were shifted out and listed before the other benches in violation of the Supreme Court Rules and the Handbook on Practice and procedure of the Court which govern the listing of cases.

The letter in question is not an isolated incident rather is a classic ploy from the handbook which has been tried time and again before

almost every Chief Justice of India in recent past.

Such letters are an extra judicial mechanism of creating undue influence and pressure in the

functioning of the independent judicial system.

Mishra said in his letter that the attempts made through such letters clearly amount to contemptuous conduct and a mischief perpetrated to further ulterior motives and ends.

The Hon’ble Courts must tackle such attempt with iron hands. Such

practice can be curbed by wholly ignoring them and ensuring that the

same does not have any impact on the free and fair functioning of the

existing system.

It must be remembered that such letters come from few

selected quarters represented by a handful of senior counsels with political motives and for commercial stakes.

The BCI Chairman has argued that such letters aim to dishearten the working and the hopes of the younger members of the Bar, who are functioning and discharging their duties as advocates within the contours of the system and who are used to not adopt any over-the-top means for gaining undue influence over the system.

The letter further contended that the BCI stands firmly with the CJI and has urged him to stamp out the nuisance that these letters seek to create and set a lasting precedent against such attempts.

On December 6 Dave’s letter to the CJI came soon after the senior counsel had in open court remarked that cases earlier heard by a bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose and were wrongly being transferred to a bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi. Who is Junior to Justice Bose.

In the opinion of the Bar, such letters are sent with the sinister object

prompting from influential and powerful litigants who are ready to go to any extent to gain any sort of advantage over the other members of the Bar who are discharging their adversarial functions diligently and

professionally.

Mishra further contended that the claims made in the letter are in order to attract cheap publicity without an iota of truth and is completely devoid of any bona fide purpose.

The purpose behind such letters is to pressurise the judiciary for getting favourable decisions for their influential clients and interests. Such letters have now become regular feature almost to the point of staleness and must, therefore, be summarily rejected by Your Lordships.

The Bar Council of India requests Your Lordships to stamp out the

nuisance that these letters seek to create and set a lasting precedent against such attempts.

The Council stands firmly with Your Lordships and requests Your Lordship and the judiciary to stand in one voice against such attempts which have clearly been made with ulterior motives.

Unity is Strength and, therefore, on behalf of the entire legal fraternity the Bar Council expresses its full support to our dynamic, most deserving/competent, bold and impartial Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Dr. D. Y. Chandrachud. The Bar fully stands with our beloved Chief Justice of India