Professional misconduct of lawyer may also amount to contempt of court: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court recently issued contempt notices to the office bearers of the Ambedkar Nagar Bar Association for purportedly indulging in frequent strikes. [Pawan Kumar and Another v. Sri Dewa Nand Tiwari, Nayab Tehsildar, Ambedkar Nagar] .While noting that professional misconduct of a lawyer may also amount to contempt of court, Justice Alok Mathur recorded in the order,"Accordingly, issue notice to newly added respondent Nos. 2 to 4 to show cause through counsel as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for frequently calling for strikes of the bar association due to which the judicial work of the revenue courts is affected which is amount to willful disobedience of the judgment passed by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case Ex-Capt. Harish Uppal (Supra), Hussain (Supra), District Bar Association Dehradun (Supra)...".The issue stems from an order passed by the High Court in July last year, in which it had directed the Tehsildar of Alapur in Ambedkar Nagar to make an earnest endeavour to decide a land revenue case expeditiously.The Court had found in that order,"Perusal of the order sheet contained in Annexure No.3 to the petition indicates that the case is being adjourned mostly on the ground of strike of lawyers. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to issue any direction for disposal of case within some time bound period.".In the present matter, Justice Mathur noted that one of the main reasons for non-conclusion of the proceedings was the frequent strikes called for by the Ambedkar Nagar Bar Association. Given the fact that on most dates when the matter was listed of hearing, proceedings could not take place because of strikes, a contempt petition was filed against the members of the Bar Association..Counsel for the applicant submitted that the frequent calls for strikes by the Bar Association were in gross violation of the judgments of the Supreme Court in Ex-Capt Harish Uppal v. Union of India and Hussain and another v. Union of India, among others.It was also stated that poor litigants whose cases were pending before the revenue courts for a very long time, having no other remedy, approached the High Court for relief. Under the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, there are fixed time periods for disposal of cases related to mutation and partition. In the present case, the land revenue dispute was ordered to be decided in six months, the Court noted."The cases remain pending as the call for boycott from judicial work by local Bar Association is very frequent, and no judicial work is carried out during that day," the Court highlighted in its order..The Bench thus issued show cause notices to office bearers of the Bar Association seeking their response on why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for frequently calling for strikes.Notices were issued to the following office bearers:Sri Ram Prakash Tiwari, PresidentSri Krishna Gopal Mishra, Ex-PresidentSri Yogendra Yadav, Secretary.The matter will be next heard on July 29.The applicant was represented by Advocate Vijai Kumar Shukla..[Read order]