There is one famous rule of power.
It says, "Power slips away from hands which are not capable of holding it."
The power to debar and to prohibit a lawyer from practising in courts is essentially a power of Bar Council of India and of other Bar Councils of various States.
For some reasons, they failed to use this power on many occasions.
One reason is "these are elected bodies". Here, office bearers are elected by lawyers.
It happened or it looked like that some lawyers who were appearing to be committing misconduct, had also a big "Vote Bank of Lawyers" with them, or it appeared that they were politically very influential.
For one reason or another, Bar Councils appeared to have some difficulty in debarring and removing influential and erring lawyers.
So the Courts found a Way
First happened it in a case known as V C Misra case. He was chairman of Bar Council of India. Some serious allegations were made.
Justice Kuldeep Singh gave a judgement which said that Courts have power to debar a lawyer from practising for certain period under Contempt cases. And he debarred Chairman of Bar Council from practising in any court for few months.
Then this case is followed in many cases and now it appears, that the Courts have started using this power.
The Great Disadvantage
The main apprehension is this :-
if you give power to judges to debar any lawyer, will it not prevent lawyers to argue boldly before judges? Will it not prevent a lawyer from exposing or protesting against a judge who may be corrupt?
Only time can answer this questions.
Haresh Raichura
15/1/15
Copyright : Haresh Raichura 2014. All Rights reserved.
