At CJI Khehar’s farewell, AG, SCBA President and Secretary condemn lawyers who browbeat judges

The farewell function organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for the outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI), JS Khehar witnessed some very interesting remarks by senior members of the Bar, particularly Attorney General for India KK Venugopal and SCBA President RS Suri and Secretary Gaurav Bhatia..None of them took any names but it became clear that they were referring to Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan’s article on Chief Justice JS Khehar after SCBA President RS Suri referred to his rebuttal article in his speech..This rebuttal article by Suri, which was published on Bar & Bench, was in response to Rajeev Dhavan’s article titled “Why JS Khehar was arguably one of the worst Chief Justices of India” which was published in DailyO..The article by Dhavan had created quite a furore at the Bar prompting Suri to reply to the same..At the farewell function today, the SCBA President and Secretary and the Attorney General for India came down upon the alleged tendencies among senior members at the bar to deride judges..This is what they said..SCBA Secretary Gaurav Bhatia .“SCBA will not countenance any advocate to browbeat any judge or lawyer. We don’t want anybody to give character certificates. The only certificate that counts is the certificate of Supreme Court Bar Association – the 15,000 lawyers who revere the institution. I wish to say that the role of the Supreme Court Bar Association starts with protecting the institution. Institution means the judiciary, institution means the lawyers. I have already said that this Bar would stand up to any individual who would try to say unsavoury things without the approval of the SCBA and the lawyers who are part of it.”.Bhatia also raised the issue of need for having consultation between the Bar and the Bench when decisions, which could affect the Bar, are taken by the Bench..“I will be failing in my duty if I don’t mention this. Consultation and communication is the key to the relations between the Bar and the Bench and the Bar and the Registry. This is one area where, I would on behalf of the entire Bar Association, humbly request to, at least, communicate to the SCBA and consider our views, when decisions taken by the Bench relates to lawyers. This will ensure that decisions taken by the judiciary are a great success.”.SCBA President RS Suri.Suri did not speak at length about the issue but he began his speech by referring to his response to the article attacking CJI. He then stated that such members at the Bar are in minority..“They are a hopelessly self-opinionated, self-obsessed minority for whom if there is no way, it is the highway.”.Attorney General for India KK Venugopal.The Attorney General also had some strong words of criticism stating that “members of the Bar can throw bricks at judges, but judges cannot do that back to us (lawyers), so we have to be circumspect.”.He went on to state that “some members of the Bar throw bricks at judges and it is highly reprehensible.”.“Ultimately it will bring down the faith of the general public in the institution and justice delivery system.”.The Chief Justice in his speech did not refer to the issue at all. Instead, he spoke about his family and his early life..Justice Khehar’s tenure as CJI, though short, was extremely eventful with many controversies cropping up one after the another. First came the Sahara Birla Diaries issue. That had hardly died down when a suicide note by late Kalikho Pul, the former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, surfaced. That contained allegations against sitting Supreme Court judges including CJI Khehar. The manner in which that issue was handled by the Supreme Court had come in for strong criticism, particularly from Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave.