"Open Letters To Chief Justices Malicious": Supreme Court Bar Association Chief

A senior lawyer of the Supreme Court has written to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, drawing his attention to the practice of writing "open letters" by some people and addressed to Chief Justices to "exert undue pressure on the administration of justice".

Senior lawyer Adish C Aggarwala, who is also the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, in the letter said such open letters are mostly carried in the media. "... Such letters are written demonstratively with respect to a few selected cases and at the behest of some influential litigants," Mr Aggarwala said.

He cited examples from the past: "A letter was written to the then Chief Justice of India stating without any basis that certain commercial matters were being listed before 'benches of preference'. A letter is written by the same member of the Bar to the then Chief Justice of India wherein he complained that while being present virtually, he was not being allowed to speak at the retirement function of a Supreme Court judge..."

In the letter, Mr Aggarwala alleged undignified behaviour against judged by some lawyers a few days before their retirement has become a common phenomenon. "... It is aimed at attracting publicity and creating an element of uneasiness among judges, and to attract some select clientele whose brief lacks anything on merit," Mr Aggarwala said, adding due to this misbehaviour by some senior lawyers, the Bar suffers disgrace and the harmony between the Bar and the Bench gets disturbed.

"The administration cannot waste its precious time entertaining every letter making wild and imaginary accusations. The assignment of cases is not open to question on the judicial or the administrative side and, as a corollary, it is neither required to be by way of a speaking order nor is it required to be justified by responding to any person calling it into question," the senior lawyer said.

"The writing of such letters is therefore malicious, and calculated to embarrass the administration. The time has come where one should put an end to the practice of writing of such letters... It is essential to curb every attempt to scandalise the court mechanisms with insinuations and falsehood, aimed at mischievously shaking the confidence of the public in our courts," Mr Aggarwala said.