The duty to maintain the dignity and decorum of the court depends on both lawyers and judges, no matter how trying the circumstances
A senior Supreme Court (SC) judge recently lost his temper in the apex court at a senior SC lawyer, allegedly because the latter was repeating an argument which had already been made by another lawyer in the same case, and at his retort. The judge reportedly threatened to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the lawyer and convict him. At this remark, the senior lawyer walked out of the courtroom since he could not bear the insult.
I am in America at present and I read about the incident on the internet. So I shot off an email to the senior lawyer concerned asking for his version of the appalling incident but he did not respond. However, several other lawyers of the apex court have told me many times that this particular person is very rude to lawyers in his court.
I enquired about the incident from another senior advocate of the apex court, who confirmed that it was indeed just as I had read on the internet. He also added, “The level of gratuitous rudeness in the Supreme Court has increased to a point that it has become insufferable. Hopefully the new judges will restore the balance, unless while sitting with their seniors they have assumed that rudeness is the due process of the court.”
He also mentioned the previous Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who was known for his brusque behaviour in court (apart from his other well-known failings), telling eminent senior lawyers like Fali Nariman, Kapil Sibal, Dushyant Dave, Rajiv Dhavan and many others like them, in court, “None of you deserves to be heard.”
In my opinion, judges losing their temper in court and expressing rude behaviour like shouting and screaming, using insulting language, threatening contempt proceedings against lawyers for perceived repetition and retorts and threatening to have them thrown out of court or convicted and so on, are simply not done.
In particular, those in the higher judiciary must be mindful of the dignity of the court and avoid such behaviour. No doubt judges have to control court proceedings but this must be done in a dignified manner. An ugly display of temper by a judge in court not only lowers its dignity but may even lead to injustice, for when a person loses their temper, he/she is prone to mistakes. The higher one moves up a hierarchy, the more humble and courteous one must become. Judges of the Supreme Court are at the apex of the judicial hierarchy and so must be particularly humble and polite. Every written sentence of theirs becomes the law of the land (vide Article 141 of the Indian Constitution). This tremendous power comes coupled with tremendous responsibility. This calls for calm, placid and unperturbed behaviour in court and a tranquil and serene frame of mind under all circumstances, no matter how trying. In the early years of the Supreme Court, there were judges like Justices Patanjali Shastri, BK Mukherji, Vivian Bose, Fazl Ali, and so on, who were not only very erudite but also polite and humble. I may give an illustration.
Once, a very senior and very old lawyer of the Allahabad High Court, Shyam Kishan Dar, came to Delhi in the 1950s to argue a case before the Supreme Court. He was then in his 80s and was hard of hearing. He was also known to be a bit short-tempered and unsophisticated in his language.
While arguing his case, he felt the judges were unnecessarily interrupting him and not following him, so he turned to his junior and said loudly enough for all present in court to hear, “Yeh h#*@%!##e na sunte hain na samajhte hain (These b#*@%!#s neither listen to what I am saying nor do they understand).”
Instead of initiating contempt proceedings against him, the judges coolly said to the junior counsel, “Mr Counsel, we respect Mr Dar a lot, but he seems to be upset. Have we done anything wrong? We apologise if we have.”
Can we imagine this happening today? It appears that this trend has now reversed and the lack of erudition among many Indian judges is accompanied by arrogance over their high office, a short fuse and a touchy nature that is willing to take offence even over trivialities. In the context of the latest unsavoury incident in the apex court, I was glad to read that the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCORA) stood up for the aggrieved lawyer and spoke out against the judge in question. The Executive Committee of the SCORA expressed deep concern over the incident and passed a resolution saying that several members of the Bar had repeatedly been raising such grievances about the unwarranted treatment and passing of personal remarks by the judge concerned. And the resolution requested the judge to be a little more patient in dealing with lawyers. The association reminded us all that the duty to maintain the dignity and decorum of the court is cast upon both lawyers and judges. I hope the senior judges are listening.
(The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India)
