Senior Advocate Harish Salve has informed the Supreme Court that a request seeking adjournment in a matter on his behalf, was done without his knowledge.
A lawyer from Salve’s office apprised the Bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Thursday that the adjournment sought by a lawyer on February 19 on behalf of Salve, was done without keeping the Senior Advocate in loop.
Noting that this was very unfair to the judges and the Senior Counsel, the lawyer from Salve’s office said this was not the first time such an incident had occurred.
The Bench then remarked that the lawyers may not like an individual judge but there was no harm in apologising to the institution. The apology has to be to the institution and not to the individual judges. No remorse was shown by the junior members of the bar. Even that practice has disappeared with the passage of time.
Perhaps the junior members of the bar were under the impression that judges may come here, stay for a few years, and go away, noted the Apex Court, adding that it was not reprimanding the individuals, but this recurring practice was very unfair.
The Bench then asked the Advocate appearing for Salve’s office what action should be taken against the lawyer seeking adjournment in Salve’s name.
He said that one thing they were taught repeatedly was never to take the Court for granted. The lawyer said he considered the Court as his temple, where he appeared and bowed down.
There were people doing things in Salve’s name and the Senior Advocate was aggrieved. He did not even get to know about people mentioning him and seeking adjournment on his behalf, he added.
The lawyer who sought the adjournment on February 19 apprised the Bench on Thursday that he was acting on the client’s instructions.
He said Senior Advocate Salve had appeared in the matter earlier, so he had no reason to disbelieve that the client had not spoken to Salve.
Deeply apologising to the Court, the lawyer said since the client was always directly in touch with Salve’s office, he had no reason to disbelieve.
The Apex Court then put the matter to rest.
On February 19, a lawyer sought four weeks adjournment in a matter on behalf of Salve, saying that the Senior Advocate would argue the case.
Expressing its strong disapproval, the Apex Court then remarked that this tendency of lawyers seeking adjournment in the name of a Senior Counsel must stop.
The Bench said it would not adjourn the matter just because the Counsel mentioned the name of a Senior Advocate.
When the matter came up for hearing later, the top court of the country said it wanted to dispel the impression that it could adjourn the matter in the name of a senior counsel.
However, it accepted the request and adjourned the hearing.