"You Keep Our Courts Strong": Bar Association In Letter To Chief Justice DY Chandrachud

The All Manipur Bar Association has written to the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud highlighting the need to speak out against "underhanded attacks" on the judiciary.

The bar association in the letter said it is extremely concerned about recent trends where vested interest groups are trying to defame the courts with "frivolous logic" and "stale political agendas".

"This heated interest group operates in various ways. They create false narratives of a supposed 'better past' and 'golden period' of the courts, contrasting it with the happenings in the present," the bar association said in the letter to Chief Justice Chandrachud.

"These are nothing but intentional statements made to embarrass the courts for certain gains... Their pressure tactics are most obvious in political cases, particularly those involving political figures accused of corruption. These tactics are damaging to our courts and threaten our democratic fabric," the bar association said in the letter dated March 26.

The bar association requested the Chief Justice of India to take strong steps to protect the courts from such "attacks".

"... They have also stooped to the level of comparing our courts to those countries where there is no rule of law and accusing our judicial institutions with unfair practices. These aren't just criticisms; they are direct attacks meant to damage the public's trust in our judiciary and threaten the fair application of our laws," the bar association said.

"As people who work to uphold the law, we think it is time to stand up for our courts. We need to speak out against these underhanded attacks, making sure our courts stay strong as pillars of our democracy, untouched by these calculated attacks," the bar association said in the letter signed by All Manipur Bar Association president Puyam Tomcha Meetei.

Chief Justice Chandrachud in an interview to NDTV on March 20 had said the Supreme Court is always there for citizens of India, "irrespective of wealth, social status, caste, religion, or gender or who is in power", and "no case is too small for the highest court of the land".

"Sometimes I get emails in the middle of the night. Once there was a woman who needed medical termination of a pregnancy... my staff contacted me and we constituted a Bench the next day," the Chief Justice had said, giving an example.