The Supreme Court Friday sought the stands of the Tamil Nadu government and advocate bodies of the state on a lawsuit for initiating criminal and disciplinary proceedings against a section of lawyers in the state for 'holding the legal system to ransom' and becoming law unto themselves.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan sought the stands of government and lawyers' bodies, issuing them notices on a lawsuit by Chennai citizen, Vishwanath Swami, who also demanded transfer of all the criminal cases against advocates, involved in violence inside the Madras High Court premises in February this year, outside the state.
The bench, which also included Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Ashok Ganguly, decided to hear Swami's lawsuit along with a bunch of other pleas related to lawyers' agitation and act of vandalism.
Appearing for Swami, former attorney general Soli J. Sorabjee also urged the court 'to exercise its extra-ordinary powers and lay down sufficient guideline for (decent) behaviour by lawyers inside an outside the court premises.'
Sorabjee urged the apex court to frame guidelines in accordance with the recommendations of Justice B.N. Srikrishna who probed into advocates' violent agitation on the apex court order itself and had found that 'a mob of unruly lawyers had indulged in stone throwing, rioting and vandalism.'
The former attorney general recalled that Justice Srikrishna, in his report, had also pointed out that various bar councils, formed to have disciplinary control over advocates, have not been acting as an effective regulatory bodies when it comes to enforcing professional conduct on their members.'
He recalled that Justice Srikrishna had also suggested changes in the Advocates Act, 1961 to ensure a better disciplinary mechanism as it 'affects not only disciplined lawyers but also the litigants, the administration of justice and finally the rule of law.'
Justice Srikrishna, in his report, had urged that pending suitable changes in the law by the government, the apex court should formulate appropriate guidelines to discipline the lawyers.
Swami, who was also a victim of the lawyers' unruly behaviour inside the high court premises on Feb 19 and ended up fracturing one of his arms in the ensuing cane-charge by the police, told the court that as per official information procured by him under the provisions of transparency law, a total of 345 criminal cases have been registered against lawyers all over Tamil Nadu.
Swami said the cases include 175 registered in Chennai alone with some of them dating back to 1991, but the police failed to prosecute them.
He said that even the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, which had been apprised by the police of various criminal cases registered by them against lawyers, have failed to take action against them.
Swami pointed out that though the Madras High Court later ordered suspension of four senior police officers for ordering cane-charging in the high court premises to quell the mob of rioting lawyers, the high court took no action against any of the erring lawyers, despite several judges of the high court falling victim to 'lawyers' hooliganism'.
In his lawsuit, Swami pointed out to the court that the high court has failed to implement even its own order of 2006, as per which lawyers have been barred from erecting political hoardings, cutouts of political leaders and putting up political advertisement in the court premises.
The lawyers continue to indulge in all sorts of political activites inside the court premises with immunity, said Swami in his atition.
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