The Delhi High Court recently gave out a stern message against the might of senior counsels weighing down on the Bench..In an ongoing letters patent appeal before a Division Bench of Pradeep Nandrojog and Mukta Gupta JJ., the presiding judge passed a scathing order that not only criticized a certain senior counsel’s preparedness (or rather, the lack of it) of the case but went a step ahead and dismissed the matter for non-prosecution..The order in question, that is being circulated widely on WhatsApp, comes down heavily on the senior counsel who appeared for a big power company and is often briefed by the company for representing them in Supreme Court as well as the High Court. It says that though the matter was passed over in the first call so that the senior would be available to argue, he still exhibited a patent lack of preparation for the matter when it came up during the second call..The judge further goes on to criticize the advocate’s conduct by stating that if the latter was not ready to assist the Court, he ‘ought not to have appeared.’ Before dismissing the matter, the judge proceeds to shower empathy on junior lawyers by stating that it is often their grievance on how a senior advocate is always willfully accommodated for the same reasons for which a junior maybe pulled up by the Bench..Therefore in order to avoid entertaining such apparent bias, the Bench said it was inclined to dismiss the matter because in the Court’s opinion the senior counsel ‘should not have appeared in the matter if he did not have enough time to study his brief.’.However, the company somewhat redeemed itself at the next hearing when it moved restoration applications, and also tendered an ‘unconditional apology’, an apology which the Bench appears to have accepted. The restoration order states that in light of the ‘important question of law’, the Bench was inclined to accept the apology and restore the appeals..Amidst the brouhaha on how senior counsels are “accommodated” more proactively than others, this order comes as a harsh reprimand to the so called ‘clout’ that a designation carries..Moral of the story? Senior or not, reading the brief helps..Read the dismissal order:.Read the restoration order:
The Delhi High Court recently gave out a stern message against the might of senior counsels weighing down on the Bench..In an ongoing letters patent appeal before a Division Bench of Pradeep Nandrojog and Mukta Gupta JJ., the presiding judge passed a scathing order that not only criticized a certain senior counsel’s preparedness (or rather, the lack of it) of the case but went a step ahead and dismissed the matter for non-prosecution..The order in question, that is being circulated widely on WhatsApp, comes down heavily on the senior counsel who appeared for a big power company and is often briefed by the company for representing them in Supreme Court as well as the High Court. It says that though the matter was passed over in the first call so that the senior would be available to argue, he still exhibited a patent lack of preparation for the matter when it came up during the second call..The judge further goes on to criticize the advocate’s conduct by stating that if the latter was not ready to assist the Court, he ‘ought not to have appeared.’ Before dismissing the matter, the judge proceeds to shower empathy on junior lawyers by stating that it is often their grievance on how a senior advocate is always willfully accommodated for the same reasons for which a junior maybe pulled up by the Bench..Therefore in order to avoid entertaining such apparent bias, the Bench said it was inclined to dismiss the matter because in the Court’s opinion the senior counsel ‘should not have appeared in the matter if he did not have enough time to study his brief.’.However, the company somewhat redeemed itself at the next hearing when it moved restoration applications, and also tendered an ‘unconditional apology’, an apology which the Bench appears to have accepted. The restoration order states that in light of the ‘important question of law’, the Bench was inclined to accept the apology and restore the appeals..Amidst the brouhaha on how senior counsels are “accommodated” more proactively than others, this order comes as a harsh reprimand to the so called ‘clout’ that a designation carries..Moral of the story? Senior or not, reading the brief helps..Read the dismissal order:.Read the restoration order:
