To
salvage the lost nobility of legal profession, it is necessary to send a strong
message by throwing out the goons in gowns from the profession.
Lawyers often
resort to the self-congratulatory pat that they are in the ‘noble-profession’. I
distinctly remember my enrolment ceremony about seven years ago, when one of the
then members of the Bar Council congratulated the young lawyers assembled there
for choosing the ‘noble profession’. Justice J. Chelameswar, the then Chief
Justice of the High Court of Kerala, while delivering the presidential address
in the enrolment ceremony, however clarified that law cannot claim any
exceptional nobility over other professions, and reminded that it can remain
noble only if it is carried out as per the ideals of the Constitution. These words swelled my heart, and I felt
reassured about my choice of profession.
The
self-image of being the protectors of rule of law is necessary for lawyers to
maintain their moral high ground; lest, lawyers will be regarded as mere
mercenaries for their clients. At times, lawyers might fall short of keeping up
with constitutional ideals, owing to personal short-comings and systemic
constraints, and the legal fraternity feels apologetic about such failures. Despite such occasional failures, lawyers
still pride in being part of a noble profession, because they are striving for
upholding rule of law to the best of their abilities.
But can we
feel that sense of pride and self-esteem about our profession anymore, in the
light of recent incidents? Of late, lawyers are in news for all wrong reasons. Lawyers
being conscious participants in derailing the process of law by use of might of
fist and numbers have become a disturbing and recurring trend. The legal
profession hit its all-time low with the recent incident of some lawyers of Jammu
Bar Association resorting to use of force and violence to prevent the filing of
charge sheet in the Kathua rape-murder case of minor girl. The Crime Branch, which was carrying out the
investigation into the rape-murder case under the monitoring of the Jammu &
Kashmir High Court, was caught unawares when lawyers unleashed violence to
block filing of charge-sheet. The lawyers, who are reportedly supporters of Hindu Ekta Munch which
alleges that the investigation is not fair, created unruly scenes in the Court
premises and called for a ‘bandh’ to protest the arrests. Deepika
Singh, the lawyer representing the victim-girl’s family stated that she was facing threats from the
Bar Association. She complained that the Bar Association had
boycotted her for taking up the case against the accused in Kathua rape-murder
case.
The images of lawyers going on a rampage, with
some of them carrying the National Flag, to protest the arrest of accused
brought great disrepute to the legal profession. So much so, the Supreme Court
was forced to take suo moto cognizance of the agitation by lawyers, upon
mentioning by certain conscientious members of the fraternity, who are now becoming
a dwindling tribe. Obstruction of process of law and delivery
of justice, and that too by lawyers cannot be condoned and is unethical. Access
to justice cannot be impeded by lawyers, the Supreme Court observed, while issuing notices to J&K
Bar Council and Bar Association. It is highly regrettable that the Apex Court
has been forced to make such observations on the character and conduct of
members of legal fraternity.
The violence unleashed by
lawyers of Jammu bar is a déjà vu moment of a similarly shocking
incident which happened in Patiala House Court Complex, New Delhi, during
February 2016. There, self-styled ‘patriotic’ lawyers decided to take law unto
their hands and assaulted Kanhaiya Kumar while he was brought before the
Magistrate’s Court in connection with charges of sedition. The situation was so
much out-of-control that the Supreme Court had to intervene by constituting a
committee to oversee the security arrangements in the Patiala House Court
complex. But even the SC-appointed committee could not save themselves from the
abuses and blows showered by the lawyer-gang which behaved like a bunch of
street goons. The Committee Report is
vivid in its details of violence, and is powerful enough to shock anyone with
an iota of sense of justice present in mind.
The common feature in both these incidents is the invocation
of nationalistic symbols by lawyer-thugs to justify violence. In Patiala House,
the lawyer-thugs were shouting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ while attacking
Kanhaiya Kumar. Some lawyers were caught bragging in a sting-video that
they beat up Kanhaiya Kumar till he was forced to utter ‘Bharat mata ki jai’.
The lawyers in Jammu were seen carrying the tricolour during their aggressive
protest march against the arrest of accused. The unruly protestors feel that
their demands are in consonance with the majoritarian-nationalistic sentiments.
They know that their antics will appeal to the newly emerged class of patriots,
who harbour a distorted sense of patriotism tailored by the current dominant
socio-political forces. Hence these lawyer-thugs dare to use patriotic symbols
with impunity. They do not feel that they are doing any wrong; much worse, they
feel proud about their doings. This is a
highly dangerous signal, which should send waves of shudder down the spines of
all those who believe in constitutional morality. This means skewed patriotic
sentiments of an unruly majority can undermine the due process envisaged by
Constitution. How many times in the history of India have we witnessed the
sight of National Flag being waved for shielding the arrest of those charged
with rape-murder of a minor girl?
To add a caveat, all those who are named as accused in the
charge-sheet are entitled to the presumption of innocence, until their guilt is
proven after trial. They are entitled to point out defects in investigation.
They are entitled to demand probe by another agency, if they feel investigation
is not fair. But, there is a process established by law for seeking all such
demands. Our legal system is robust and capable enough to consider such demands
on its merits. When lawyers themselves undermine due process of law to achieve
their vested ends, it sends a wrong message to the society. How can the common
man be expected to repose trust in legal process, when learned members of the
bar themselves display lack of faith in our own legal system?
It is heartening that the Supreme Court has chosen to
intervene in the issue. But, let us hope that the righteous
indignation shown by the Supreme Court will not fizzle out in due course, as it
happened with Patiala House incident. Almost two years down the line, the
Supreme Court, in an unfortunate decision, chose to refrain from proceeding
against the unruly lawyers who were responsible for the terror situation by
Patiala House Court. The Supreme Court closed the case, reportedly observing ‘we don’t want to
flog a dead horse’. Let us hope that the Jammu-Kathua incident also
does not end up as a dead horse some years down the line. To salvage the lost
nobility of legal profession, it is necessary to send a strong message by
throwing out the goons in gowns from the profession. If the
images of lawyers indulging in strong-arm tactics in street do not appear as
sickening and ignoble to you, then kindly refrain from using the
self-congratulatory cliché ‘law is a
noble profession’ anymore!
Published in Live Law on 15.04.2018
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