#7Incidents in the tumultuous history of the Madras High Court

The date is February 19, 2009, the battlefield is the Madras High Court. Relations between the police and the Bar have plunged to an all-time low, and with it, the rich culture of one of the oldest institutions in the country. Advocates, who have just set a police station ablaze, are now hurling stones at policemen. In turn, the policemen are countering with lathicharges and tear gas..A sitting judge, Justice Arumuga Perumal Adityan, is shown being pulled away from this war zone; his head is bleeding, tears are streaming down his eyes. In a state of consternation, he makes an impassioned plea to no one in particular, “Please stop this! You are ruining the reputation of this institution!”.Six years on, the judge’s plea remains a valid one. Some advocates of the Madras High Court have developed a notorious reputation, bringing ignominy on themselves on a frequent basis. And it is not just the undisciplined sections of the Bar that are to blame for the constant state of turmoil the chartered court finds itself in. Judges too have not exactly covered themselves in glory..Here, we look at seven instances where the reputation of a legal institution with a proud heritage is slowly being tarnished.. February 2009: Cops and Lawyers.The fuse had been lit a long time back; it was only a matter of time before things exploded. And explode they did. The police and the advocates at the high court have constantly been at loggerheads with each other. In February 2009, the inevitable happened..A group of advocates was arrested by the police for assaulting Subramanian Swamy. Their brethren, while protesting the arrest, also demanded that the police arrest the Janata Party President for making caste-based remarks against them. From there on, things spiraled out of control. More than 50 lawyers, policemen and even a sitting judge were injured..Subsequently, 31 lawyers were charged for the violent conduct. Unsurprisingly, the Bar Association decided to strike in protest.. November 2011: Cast[e]ing Aspersions.Caste-based politics and discrimination has played a pivotal role in the chequered history of the High Court. And this politics isn’t limited to the Bar, as was revealed by sitting judge Justice Karnan..In a letter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Justice Karnan made some very serious complaints against his fellow judges. One of the charges was that a group of inebriated lawyers “encouraged and financed” by a few judges would try to instigate him.. January 2014: Transparent elevations.Thousands of lawyers participated in protests demanding transparency in judicial appointments, after a list of 12 names came up for elevation. Caste politics reared its ugly head once again, as some lawyers expressed their staunch disapproval to the appointment of three Brahmins to the Bench. The protestors went as far as to enter erstwhile Chief Justice RK Agarwal’s chambers and demand that the names be recalled..Justice Karnan found himself in the limelight once again when he stormed into a court hearing a PIL filed by one R Gandhi and protested that the collegium’s recommendations were “not fair”.. February 2015: “Go Back to Kashmir”.Two simultaneous incidents led to protesting advocates shouting slogans on campus, telling Chief Justice SK Kaul to go back to Kashmir..The first was another judicial appointments controversy, where Justice Kaul told a group of complaining advocates that he would not take instructions from anyone on the matter. The second was a PIL to shift Ambedkar Law College from the High Court campus to another area..While hearing the PIL, Justice Kaul is said to have remarked,.“I do not have any objection to go anywhere, but my worry is only about the great institutional tradition of the Madras High Court. It is up to you to save the tradition or degrade it.”. May 2015: Judge v. Judge.Justice Karnan found himself in the midst of controversy again, this time in a rather bizarre chain of events. After Chief Justice Kaul constituted a five-member committee for interviewing potential civil judges, Justice Karnan initiated suo motu proceedings against the CJ’s decision and stayed it..Wanting more minority representation in the committee, in the order, he went as far as to accuse Justice Kaul of “maladministration”..And it didn’t end there. After a Division Bench stayed his order, he got the matter listed before him on the judicial side and reiterated his earlier order, this time threatening Justice Kaul of contempt and proceedings under the SC/ST Act..“My deep request to the Chief Justice is to avoid ego and stop acting in an autocratic manner…”.The High Court subsequently approached the Supreme Court against Justice Karnan for exhibiting judicial indiscipline and challenging the authority of the Chief Justice.. June 2015: Above the Law.Justice Kirubakaran had passed an order making it mandatory for two-wheeler riders to wear helmet. For reasons best known to them, the advocates chose to protest against the order..In Madurai, two lawyers – AK Ramaswamy and A Dharmajan – instigated the bar association to conduct a rally in Madurai, where advocates openly flouted the newly made rule and even burned helmets in protest. The court then initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the duo.. September 2015: A New Low.While not as horrifying as the events that transpired in February 2009, this September, things went rather out of hand at the High Court..Firstly, the court of Chief Justice Kaul witnessed a protest demanding that Tamil be made the language of the court. Groups of lawyers as well as the general public entered the courtroom with large banners..Then, when the hearing of the two aforementioned contemnors came up on September 16, hordes of advocates from Madurai turned up at the Chennai campus in a show of solidarity. Not allowed to witness the proceedings, they reacted by shouting slogans in the corridors and wreaking havoc on the campus..Chief Justice Kaul would reveal in a later order that the judges were feeling unsafe as a consequence of the events; even Chief Justice of India HL Dattu sympathised with the notion when the matter was mentioned in the Supreme Court. In that same order, Justice Kaul would reveal findings of the Security Committee of the High Court, which highlighted frequent incidents of misdemeanour on the part of the advocates..Voices of Reason.While certain sections of the Bar remain hell-bent on tarnishing the profession’s image, there are those who do not approve of this behaviour. Among them are senior lawyers and judges we have interviewed over the years. So what is their take on this chronic problem?.Senior Advocate PS Raman believes that the State Bar Council must play a more proactive role..“They [State Bar Councils] should know that when people latch on to agitations and stone throwing, those people don’t deserve to be in the Bar. I have always been a strong anti-boycott person. I believe that the Supreme Court has very categorically held a boycott to be illegal… We seem to be boycotting at the drop of the hat.”.On the other hand, veteran advocate NGR Prasad believes the Supreme Court is a class institution and that the government should do more to address the issue..“Everybody has a fundamental right to strike. The strike is the last weapon in the hands of the working people…The government should resolve the issue.”.One person who has been on both sides is former Madras High Court judge Justice K Chandru. As a firebrand activist-turned lawyer, he would be at the forefront of the protests. However his attitude towards strikes changed when he became a judge..“Later, sitting with Justice AP Shah, I gave a judgment saying that lawyers should not go on strike…So Justice Shah asked me, ‘How do you know all these minute details?’ and I said, ‘I was the author of these agitations and this judgement is reparations for past sins!’”.Senior Advocate S Ramasubramaniam finds the situation hard to believe. He is of the opinion that lawyers themselves should keep away from these protests..“I am not able to understand the fact that lawyers can even think of committing such violent acts, that too within the High Court…My advice is to keep out of all these things. You know what they are doing is not right, but then at the same time you are not able to say anything since there is no democracy in such associations..We have no business stopping the work of the Court. It gives a very wrong picture of the Madras High Court to the outsiders…Madras High Court and the Madras Bar used to have a very good reputation. .I used to be proud of the fact that I was from the Madras High Court Bar. Nowadays, I don’t know.”.Image Courtesy:.Madras HC Police Station.Justice Karnan.Protesting advocates