Gujarat: HC notice to bar councils over competency of lawyers

The Gujarat High Court on Friday sought a reply from the Bar Council of India (BCI), Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG), and the state government, over public interest litigation (PIL) questioning the lack of rules to ascertain the competency of advocates in conducting cases before the court. The division bench of Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren issued a notice to BCI, BCG and government seeking their reply in the matter by March 20.

Notably, the high court administration instituted the PIL after a judgment delivered by the single-judge bench of Justice Bela Trivedi Vaishnav against a lawyer Girish Das for the latter’s failure to conduct his matter properly before the court. Justice Trivedi had directed the registry to place the matter before the Acting Chief Justice as a PIL.

The PIL seeks a two-fold solution to the problem of lack of competency of lawyers—one is to frame rules in this regard and the second is to organise regular training for lawyers on how to conduct matters, and the ethics and etiquettes they need to follow in the courtroom.

Justice Trivedi in her judgment pronounced on January 11 had imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for his failure to conduct the case of his clients and entering into useless arguments despite being issued several warnings. The judgment provides that although the case filed by Das was related to a notice issued under the Town Planning Act, yet Das kept on arguing on the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act. It also provides that Das was completely ignorant about the facts of the case as well as the laws applicable to it.

Justice Trivedi had also remarked in the judgment: “When the Court expressed orally that it was not inclined to entertain the petition and would dismiss with cost to be paid by him and not by the petitioners, he had the audacity to say that this was not the final Court and that he would approach the Supreme Court”.