Lawyer's mission is to win client's brief, not to artistically criticise judges or judgments: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday reminded lawyers that their mission in court is to present their clients' briefs and not artistically criticise judges or their judgments..A division bench of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Alexander Thomas and Justice C Jayachandran was hearing an appeal moved against an order of a single-judge of the Court.The bench took objection to the line of arguments made by the counsel for the appellant while criticising the judgment that was being appealed.When the counsel pointed out that he was criticising the earlier judgment because he is arguing in appeal jurisdiction, ACJ Thomas said,"You have only one mission, to win the brief of your client. Not to make artistic criticisms of judges and judgments."The ACJ asked the lawyer why he made the argument criticising a judge when a single argument on a factual point would have sufficed."Why should you give any adjectives ? You are not a law professor to give criticism like this. Don’t repeat this in any other court," the bench said.The lawyer maintained that his submissions were made only because the court was hearing an appeal and that he had faith in the magnanimity of the Court. The bench disregarded the "flattery" and ACJ Thomas recalled an incident from over 30 years ago when a Senior Advocate gave similar advice to a young lawyer."Please, we don’t want flattery in the morning. You should have a clinical detachment. I still remember an incident from 30 years ago. In the court of a very senior judge, a young lawyer, a very good young lawyer, had some issues in the course of submissions and it generated a bad mood. Senior Counsel MN Sukumaran Nair was sitting next to him. He is one senior counsel who never interfered with anything. But since he liked this youngster, after the arguments were over he tugged at his robe and asked him to meet him after court is over. When they met after court, he said, "young man, you have only one mission, to win the brief of your client. Your mission is not to fight with other lawyers or judges. You become a true lawyer only when you discover the art of doing that". If you want, remember that. Otherwise you can forget it and repeat this again," the ACJ remarked..ACJ Thomas went on to caution the counsel against adopting a similar line of argument in any other court."You are not facing any problem because you are in this court where I can assure you that you will not face any issues even if you make a remark against me. Don't make this mistake in any other court," ACJ Thomas remarked..The appeal that the Court was hearing was moved by a person who had participated in a tender for a slaughterhouse and was declared as the successful bidder. The amount for which the tender was fixed was around ₹14 lakh of which the appellant paid ₹5.25 lakh as the first installment.Subsequent unforeseen circumstances put the appellant in a position where he was unable to pay the remaining amount. The panchayat that had called the tender kept ₹5.25 lakh as forfeited amount and re-tendered the slaughterhouse. The appellant moved a petition seeking directions to the panchayat to return the amount to him. In May this year, a single-judge of the Court dismissed the petition noting that the cause of action that accrued in 2012 no longer survived. This led to the present appeal that was heard by the division bench today. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, the bench directed the panchayat to "sympathetically" consider the appellant's request for returning the sum paid by him.