Expressing its strong pleasure against the Faizabad Bar Association of Uttar Pradesh for organising frequent strikes, the Supreme Court directed each office bearer of the association to file an affidavit stating that they shall never ever pass any resolution to abstain from judicial work in future.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday directed every office bearer of the petitioner-association to file an undertaking by way of an affidavit before the District Judge, the High Court and this Court, stating that they shall never ever pass any resolution for abstaining from work.
The members were further directed to either approach the District Judge or if need arose, the Administrative Judge/portfolio Judge of the High Court, for redressal of their grievances, if any.
The Apex Court passed the order on a petition filed by FBA seeking a stay on the August 8 order of the Allahabad High Court.
The High Court had established in its order an Elders Committee to take over the affairs of the Faizabad Bar Association, oversee its business and guarantee that elections to its Governing Council were held by December 2024.
Taking note of the High Court’s observation that out of total 134 working days from November 2023 to April 2024, lawyers in Faizabad abstained from work for 66 days, the Apex Court observed that it could not allow mockery of justice or browbeating of court.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Rakesh Khanna prayed for stay on the High Court order.
The Apex Court rebuked the petitioner, stating that it could not let the association harass the litigants.
The Bench specifically took note of the observations made by the High Court in para 14 of its judgment, stating that the High Court had taken a stern view of the frequent strikes by Faizabad lawyers.
Para 14 of the High Court decision said that in the judgeship of Faizabad, there has been a long history of going on strikes. The report of District Judge has revealed that in the month of November, 2023, out of 21 working days, lawyers abstained from work on 12 days.
In December, 2023, out of 20 working days, lawyers abstained from work on eight days; in January, 2024, out of 24 working days, lawyers abstained from work on 13 days; in February, 2024, out of 24 working days, lawyers abstained from work on 11 days; in March, 2024, out of 22 working days, lawyers abstained from work on 10 days; in April, 2024, out of 23 working days, lawyers abstained from work on 12 days.
Out of total 134 working days from November, 2023 to April, 2024, lawyers abstained from work on 66 days, which was a pathetic situation, noted the High Court.
It further observed that even after High Court had reserved its judgment in the matter, the President and the General Secretary of the earlier Governing Council of FBA, which was elected only till December 2023, passed resolutions for abstaining from judicial work.
Taking note of the High Court order, the Supreme Court warned that it would issue a contempt of court notice to every member of the association.
However, on request of Advocate Khanna, the Court proceeded to call for affidavits from the office bearers of the association.
The Bench termed it a gross contempt by the lawyers and listed the matter for further hearing on September 13.
The Bench further refused to stay the High Court order, stating that this would lead to demoralising of the district judiciary and the High Court, which had taken so much strain in passing this reasonably fair and bold order.
The Apex Court noted that the High Court could have taken very harsh action against the lawyers, but it maintained a very balanced approach. Otherwise the conduct shown by the petitioners was very serious and unfortunate. This was a gross contempt by the lawyers, it added.
The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Sukumar Pattjoshi, along with Advocates Rakesh Khanna, Kumar Murlidhar, Atul Verma, Aditya P Khanna, Adarsh Kumar Pandey, Mukesh Kumar, Varun Chugh, Mithilesh Kumar Jaiswal, Arun Kanwa, Vignesh Singh, Anoop Krishna Upadhyay, Abhinav Kaushik, Prashant Trivedi, Alok Kumar, Gautam Barnwal, Shailendra P Singh and Rohit Singh Lodhi.