Supreme Court reserves order in plea by SCBA seeking Supreme Court land for lawyers' chambers

The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict in the plea by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) seeking the conversion of land allotted to the Supreme Court as a chamber block for lawyers [Supreme Court Bar Association vs Ministry of Urban Development and ors].A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud with Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and PS Narasimha heard the matter before reserving it for order. .The case has been a cause of disaccord between the SCBA and the CJI for the past few week after the CJI rebuked SCBA president Vikas Singh on March 2 for insisting on urgent listing of the case.Singh had persistently mentioned the matter on March 2 despite the CJI saying it would be listed only in ordinary course. Singh had then stated that he would even visit the CJI's residence to get the matter heard.In response, the CJI had asked Singh to leave the court immediately and said that he would not be intimidated and that Singh would be treated only like any other litigant."You cannot expect the bench to be cowered down. I have never been browbeaten, and I will not let this happen in final two years of my career. You can pursue your political agendas outside the court hall."The CJI had also reminded Singh that he was asking for land allotted to the Supreme Court to be given to lawyers under Article 32..Interestingly, after the heated exchange in CJI Chandrachud's court earlier , Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Neeraj Kishan Kaul had apologised for Singh's conduct.Later, the executive committee (EC) of the SCBA "expressed solidarity" with Singh. It had also proposed to pass two resolutions, one of which called for action against lawyers who make mentioning contrary to the SCBA's stand in the case.The second one sought issuance of show-cause notices to Kaul and Sibal, for their act of apologising to the CJI for Singh's conduct.A general body meeting of the SCBA was slated for March 16 to be voting on the two resolutions.Subsequent to the EC meeting, more than 470 lawyers including Senior Advocates, and former Attornery General KK Venugopal (separately), wrote to the SCBA objecting to the two resolutions.The EC, taking cognisance of the same along with the listing of the present plea, subsequently called off the meeting.