150 years of the Bombay Bar Association: A league of legends

The past Saturday witnessed the sesquicentenary celebration of one of the oldest bar associations in the country: the Bombay Bar Association (BBA). Not only were several stalwarts of the bar and the bench present there, the event launched a coffee table book, and also had short play which was a (modern day) reenactment of the Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s trial..The Supreme Court of Bombay was inaugurated on 8th May, 1824 with just five practitioners (four barristers and one advocate general) constituting the Bombay Bar, which later came to be known as the Bombay Bar Association..Milind Sathe, BBA President and senior counsel, addressed the audience right after Nitin Thakkar, delving into the glorious past which the BBA boasts of, and spoke of the distinguished legal luminaries it has produced who have held historical positions in the Indian Judiciary..CJI Thakur was unable to attend, with Justice DY Chandrachud filling in. Other luminaries that addressed the audience included Bombay’s current Chief Justice, Manjula Chellur and Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi..Each speaker came to the podium, with a different theme in mind; a common thread that ran across all the speakers was the admiration towards the resilience of the BBA.. Here are some snippets:. Manjula Chellur.The second lady chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Chellur J. commenced her speech with a historical review of the Bombay High Court, including the court’s architecture. She also spoke of the growth of the ‘number one bar’ of the country by displaying her admiration towards the people who were, and continue to be, a part of the institution..Emphasizing on the values of life, she said,. “Unless we make a balance of life, no profession or occupation can be said to be excellent. Without values of life, it will only be clerical and not practical”.She highlighted an important aspect which plagues the Indian judiciary throughout i.e. the huge pendency of cases, and opined that adding more courts within the existing infrastructure will serve limited purpose. She further reached out for a collective effort from the lawyers and the members of the bar to assist the court in decreasing this pendency..Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi .A stranger to the BBA, but no stranger to Bombay, the GLC graduate has a close connection to the BBA and the Bombay High Court. Among other things, he spoke of how he was surprised with the existence of this distinction between original and appellate side, with separate rules. It was an alien concept for someone who practices in the courts up north. .He added,. “A strong bar, in my opinion, produces a strong court. This bar is synonymous with a strong court.”.Like everyone else, he took a moment to admire Justice Chagla, a Chief Justice who did not live a life of seclusion. On a lighter note Rohatgi also said that if Justice Chagla were to apply for being a judge today, he would have been refused because of the ‘supposedly different standards’. DM Chandrachud J..An excellent orator and a splendid storyteller, to say the least, Chandrachud took a path down memory lane reminiscing his days at the BBA and thereafter his experience at the Bench, not forgetting to mention the lessons learnt..Speaking of the experience of shifting from the bar to the bench, he said,.“There is a great psychological barrier which a judge from the bar has to face: when you address your own, not really friends from the bar, but seniors of the bar from whom you’ve learnt your infant steps.”.He urged us to not forget the ones who do not achieve the fame and titles, for they give the bar its colour, its texture as well its personality. The members of the bar make it a ‘way of life’ and ‘not just a profession’. In good humour, he also said,.“By and large lawyers fall into three categories: Those who do nothing but the law, those who do something apart from the law, and the third, important most, those who do everything but the law.”.Chandrachud also highlighted the grave challenges the profession faces and the need to reform the “outdated ways of working”. And these reformations are not necessarily required to be passed by parliamentary will, but by individual efforts- among other things, harnessing technology and increasing productivity..He was also concerned with the development of young legal talent which resides in small towns, not having access or the means to reach these prestigious bars..Another topic touched upon was the threat to judicial independence, not the ones which are spoken in the newspapers but small threats across the country which are never spoken of by the media such as, judges being assaulted and abused by members of the bar in small districts; the genuine threats to true judicial independence..S.A. Bobde J..Commencing his speech with a quote from his departure from the bar,.“There are two kinds of people: those who bring happiness wherever they go, and those who bring happiness whenever they go.”.And immediately pointed out thereafter, the great ability of the BBA to be a part of the former. He remarked,.“There is no such thing as independent judiciary without an independent bar.”.He expressed his concern (not with respect to BBA but several parts of the country) over the dwindling institution of the chamber, where one learns the law and the nuances associated with it, learns how to respectfully withstand a bully from the bench, how to be forceful without being disrespectful..And this dwindling of the institution has deleterious effects, Bobde added. This institution which sustained for over a century, is the greatest strength of the BBA, according to Bobde.. “I don’t think it will be an unacceptable exaggeration to say that the idea of India was formed in this association by its members.”.(Lead image courtesy BBA)