Imposing a moral code on advocates on record (AoR), who alone can file cases in the Supreme Court, an apex bench has warned against the practice adopted by certain AoRs to lend their names to litigation and refusing to follow it up in court.
Deprecating the practice of AoRs lending signatures and refusing to follow it up in court by being present during hearings, the bench of Justices BS Chauhan and SA Bobde said, “Such an attitude is tantamount to cruelty in the crudest form towards the innocent litigant.” As is the practice, court highlighted that AoR followed a crucial link between judges and the litigants as it is they who have to lend assistance all through hearing of the case in the apex court. But at the same time, the facts of the present case led the court to observe, “A noble profession has been allowed to be converted into a profession of cheating.”
Taking a step further, the Bench commented at the vagaries of the profession which had been reduced to a commercial venture and an expensive one too. “The legal profession, once known as a noble profession, has been converted into a commercial undertaking. litigation has become so expensive that it has gone beyond the reach and means of a poor man.”
Terming the conduct of lawyer in question as unbecoming and “reprehensible”, court let him off following his unconditional apology and request by senior lawyers at the bar who pleaded his cause. Censuring him, the bench ordered that his conduct would be examined for a year and if there was no improvement, fresh proceedings may be initiated against him.