Muzzaffar Ali Shah
The Corona Virus Pandemic has, in addition to putting the human beings in self-realization, exposed various inherent flaws and loopholes in our governance systems across-the-globe. What to talk of other countries, we must be primarily concerned with our own nation, where we have been living and will always be.
But, in addition to exposing the fallacies in our healthcare infrastructure, this pandemic has also exposed our other government institutions such as the executive, judiciary, police, prisons and the press-both print and electronic media. However, I won’t be commenting on any of these institutions except the legal industry and the role played by our Judiciary- which plays the supervisory role over the actions of the executive, legal fraternity as well as on the acts of the legislature(s). The sequence of events unfolded in a very systematic way- corona virus cases started coming to limelight, Janata Curfew was imposed for a day and then a twenty one day nationwide lockdown was imposed followed by various extensions, without any planning and rationale, but may be that was the only option left as the present governance model was too late to realize the threat posed by this virus. So, this unplanned lockdown choked the ongoing processes, works and activities suddenly, leaving helpless citizens in lurch and ambiguity. Luckily the Government servants remained the only class having faced little brunt or nothing because of this lockdown. But amongst the worst sufferers, including the migrant workers and laborers, daily wage earners, rehri-walas, sex workers, domestic helpers, and farmers are also the members of the legal fraternity- especially the young lawyers who have been in the initial years of their practice as the physical court hearings have been dispensed with and remain suspended for more than two months now.
During this ongoing lockdown, the Central Government took various measures & rolled out various schemes to provide subsistence allowance or financial assistance to the various categories of effected people so that they could survive this pandemic. But, the legal fraternity except in a few states remained orphaned and without any concern from any quarter. Needless to mention here that Kerala Bar Association was the first one to announce a financial assistance scheme for the young lawyers practising in the different courts within the jurisdiction of High Court of Kerala, followed by a few other states such as Delhi Bar Council, Karnataka Bar Council and Orissa Bar Council to name a few. However, the important role played by the High Court of Allahabad is appreciable when it took suo moto cognizance of the plight of the Advocates and Advocate’s clerks and ensured that Bar Council of India (BCI), Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh and various Bar Associations are taken to task and that they perform their assigned duties as mandated by the Statutes and rules governing these bodies. A few days ago, even High Court of Telangana disbursed financial assistance of Rs. 10,000/- and Rs. 5,000/- to Advocates and Advocate’s Clerks respectively who were in dire need of this timely assistance. I must place on record my appreciation for the Jammu & Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Jammu (JKHCBAJ) for realizing that they are also supposed to do their part fairly. Pertinent to mention here that JKHCBAJ also provided one time financial assistance of Rs. 5000/- to few of its young members after collecting donations from some of the senior members. Interestingly, the Lieutenant Governor, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu also handed over a Cheque of Rs. One Crore to the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir for providing financial assistance to the needy Advocates, out of which the High Court of J&K distributed Rs. 3000/- per head to few Advocates that too after a month’s time and seeking application forms from the suffering Advocates. This act of providing such a meager amount to the Advocates in these distressing times, on the part of the High Court was nothing more than doing charity or providing donations to the Advocates out of the amount provided by the UT Administration, which not only ashamed the beneficiaries but also made mockery of legal profession. The High Court which has been exercising powers of the Bar Council of J&K under Section 58 of the Advocates Act, 1961 for decades now without any justification and reasonability, has miserably failed to do justice with its duties and responsibilities as Bar Council of J&K. On this count, even the Bar Council of India has miserably failed to ensure that elections of the State Bar Council of J&K are held and the High Court is relieved of this daunting task, which it has been failing to do complete justice with. The bitter truth still remains that our High Court not only played joke with the feelings of the members of the legal fraternity but has also hit the dignity of our profession. It may kindly be noted with utmost seriousness that, various young Advocates wrote several letters to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of High Court of J&K, but none of the requests were heeded to, or even entertained. I also sent nearly five letters on the email addresses provided by the High Court but till date no response-either of acceptance or rejection, has been received by me. Let the taking of suo moto cognizance of the grievances faced by Advocates or their Clerks by the High Court, be on the one side, which the High Court was fairly expected to do, the writ petition which was filed, projecting these grievances is not even taken seriously. Important to take note of, is that, the several orders passed in the aforementioned writ petition titled Lawyer’s Club Kashmir v. Union Territory of J&K & Ors., since its filing in April, 2020, only say that the Counsel for Respondent(s) seeks time to file reply and every time the Court has been more than pleased to grant time of more than two weeks and till the last date of hearing on 05th of May, 2020, no reply was filed. More interesting than this is that, by order dated 05.05.2020, the matter was directed to be listed on 27th of May, 2020 but unfortunately the matter was not even listed before the bench for consideration and no one even bothered to inquire from the High Court Registry as why the matter was not listed despite the date being fixed by the Court itself.
Bar Council of India being the statutory body is entrusted with the duties responsibilities and functions to ensure the welfare of the Advocates but unfortunately it has miserably failed to perform any of its functions effectively. Why I say so because, even the Bar Council of India has failed to put in place any welfare measures for the Advocates and has also failed to ensure that Advocates are provided assistance in this time of crisis even though the current Chairman had written a letter to the Prime Minister of India seeking financial assistance for Advocates during the initial days of the ongoing lockdown but no follow up was done or taken up on the said letter. It seems that writing of the said letter was just to issue a press release or make a news item. It may also be taken note of that various fellow lawyers from all over the country have approached the Bar Council of India seeking its intervention in dealing with their grievances but unfortunately there has been no response from the BCI except in case of the suo moto matter taken up by the Allahabad High Court where BCI filed its response and agreed to assist the needy lawyers by extending help to the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh in this endeavor. I had also written a letter to the Chairman of the Bar Council of India seeking financial assistance for needy lawyers practicing in J&K and had also sent a copy of the same on his WhatsApp Number requesting him to take appropriate measures to ensure that lawyers get some assistance during this crisis but unfortunately didn’t receive any reply from him for nearly two months, however, a few days ago, when I saw him online on WhatsApp, I sent him a message seeking update on my application and luckily, this time he had a reply, which was “Ask your State Bar Council.” And when I replied that we don’t have a Bar Council here in J&K, he gave his final and last reply as, “H.C. manages it..”
What would one expect from such statutory body, which has failed to perform its functions independently and fairly for years together only for the obvious reasons that office of that statutory body has been used and misused for personal gain, name and fame. Had the elected office bearers of the BCI throughout their tenure(s) realized that interests of the fraternity are more important than their personal interests and obviously interests of the fraternity would also included their common interests as well, the situation of the legal fraternity would have been far more better and dignified. But unfortunately, the reality is bad, far beyond the imagination only because the offices of the statutory bodies came to be used mostly for personal scores.
Few of my colleagues from the legal fraternity practicing in Delhi Courts even approached the Supreme Court seeking redressal of their grievances especially those being faced due to the ongoing lockdown, but unfortunately even the Supreme Court recused itself from interfering into this issue, stating that these issues involve policy decisions and the petitioners should approach the Bar Council of India. Similarly, the Gujrat High Court also refused to pass directions in favor of the aggrieved Advocates stating the issue involves policy matters and it can not direct the Government to formulate the policy for the welfare of the Advocates. It can be easily inferred that Advocates in most of the states are facing similar responses from their respective Bar Councils and even from the courts, wherever they approached the High Court concerned seeking redressal of their genuine grievances.
As far as the plight of legal fraternity in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (now UTs of J&K & Ladakh) is concerned, on the one hand the High Court of J&K in its capacity as Bar Council of J&K has neither any welfare measures in place for the Advocates nor has it come forward to provide any assistance to the Advocates out of the Advocate’s Welfare Fund, which is a Corpus Fund, funded by the contributions of the Advocates only. On the other hand, as the Constitutional Court of fundamental rights and the guarantor of the fundamental rights of the citizens, it is not taking seriously the writ petition seeking the redressal of the grievances faced by the most of the Advocates as is reflected by its daily orders passed in the aforementioned writ petition. Had the court been serious about the plight of the Advocates, the time to file the reply would not have been granted to the Respondent’s Counsel again and again without any reasons and justifications. However, all these events call for an introspection and leaves us all to find out where the fault lies and it is for us all to find the answer as to where should the lawyers seek Justice for themselves. It is in such a confusing scenario, we really need to introspect and deliberate as to where should We-the lawyers seek the redressal of our grievances, while the Government is not ready to listen, when the Supreme Court of India says approach Bar Council of India, then Bar Council of India says approach your State Bar Council and then our State Bar Council says “Sorry, I am yet to be born”.
(The author is a practicing Advocate at High Court of J&K, Jammu)
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