‘Bid to undermine courts by vested interest group’, 600 lawyers write to CJI

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 28

More than 600 advocates, including senior advocate Harish Salve, BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and SCBA president Adish C Aggarwala have written to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud expressing serious concern over direct attacks being made by a “vested interest group” to damage the public’s trust in the judiciary.

In a letter addressed to the CJI, the lawyers accused the vested interest group of employing pressure tactics to influence judicial outcomes, particularly in cases involving political figures and corruption allegations.

Threat to our democratic fabric

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. —Lawyers

Noting that the timing of their modus operandi merited a “closer scrutiny” as the nation was all set to go to the polls, the lawyers requested the Supreme Court to stand strong and take steps to protect courts.

They expressed “deepest concern over the manner in which a vested interest group is trying to pressure the judiciary, influence judicial process and defame our courts on the basis of frivolous logic and stale political agenda.”

“Their (vested interest group’s) antics are vitiating the atmosphere of trust and harmony, which characterises the functioning of the judiciary.

“They create a false narrative of a supposed ‘better past’ and golden period of the courts, contrasting it with the happenings in the present. These are nothing but intentional statements made to sway court decisions and embarrass the courts for certain political gains,” the letter alleged. “It’s troubling to see some lawyers defend politicians by the day, and then try to influence judges through the media at night. Implying that the courts in the past were easier to influence shakes the public’s trust in them,” it further read.

Accusing the vested interest group of concocting a theory of ‘bench fixing’, the letter stated that it was “not just disrespectful and contemptuous but also an attack on the honour and dignity of our courts”.

It said, “There is a clear ‘my way or the highway’ approach at work. Any decision they agree with is hailed but any decision they disagree with is trashed, smeared and disregarded. This cherry picking has been visible in very recent judgments too.”

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