Bombay High Court berates senior lawyer who blamed his junior for dismissal of case; directs him to gift book to junior

The Bombay High Court recently took exception to the conduct of a senior lawyer in forcing his junior to accept the blame for dismissal of a case..A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor accepted the apology of the senior lawyer Jayesh Patel and instead of imposing costs asked him to gift a copy of ‘The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation' by Granville Austin to the junior lawyer as a goodwill gesture.The senior involved was agreeable to the course of action proposed, the Court further noted. The Court was hearing an interim application filed by Patel seeking restoration of an appeal that had been dismissed for non-appearance of his client, Memon Co-operative Bank (appellant in the case).The application pointed out that Patel missed the matter as his junior lawyer failed to inform him about the case. The Court noted that the junior had been enrolled as an advocate less than two months before the date on which the appeal came to be dismissed. The Court was displeased that Patel put the blame on said junior lawyer who was also made to file an affidavit explaining the inadvertence on the junior's part. "We find it most unfortunate that the appellant’s advocate-on-record has sought to lay the blame for non-appearance at the hands of a junior advocate. What is worse still is that the said junior advocate has been made to file an affidavit stating that the inadvertence was at her end," the Court recorded in its 6-page order..After the court expressed its displeasure, advocate Raj Patel, counsel appearing for the appellant, tendered an apology to the court and assured that the junior's name would be expunged from the record.He informed the court that the Bank had diligently prosecuted the appeal before it had been dismissed for non-appearance and hence, one last opportunity must be given. .Advocate Harshad Sathe for one of the respondents requested the court to put the appellant advocates to some terms as the affidavit filed by the junior contained facts that had occurred prior to her joining employment as if it was within the personal knowledge of the junior. .Having considered all submissions, the Court deemed it fit to restore the appeal. However instead of imposing costs, the Court directed Jayesh Patel to gift a copy of ‘The Indian Constitution : Cornerstone of a Nation by Granville Austin’ to his junior lawyer. "In the facts of the present case, especially in view of what we have observed in Paragraphs 3 and 4 above, it would be apposite that instead of granting costs in the conventional sense, that the learned Advocate on record for the Appellant gift a copy of ‘The Indian Constitution : Cornerstone of a Nation by Granville Austin’ to the learned junior Advocate, whose name finds mentioned in Paragraphs 6 and 7 of the Interim Application. This, in our view, would serve as a gesture of goodwill and erase any misunderstanding or ill will that may have occurred in the mind of learned junior Advocate, whose name finds mentioned in Paragraphs 6 and 7 of the Interim Application," the order noted..[Read Order]