Image © Sandeep Bhalla

Strike by lawyers is illegal in India:

Supreme court of India has held, in its various judgment, that strike of work by lawyers is illegal. No Bar Council or Bar Association can call for strike and if it does, disobedience shall not be misconduct. Further client can claim compensation from lawyer if he suffers due to strike. It appears that this rule do not apply to Lawyers after they become judge.

STRIKE by JUDGES!

This is about Punjab & Haryana High Court In India. On 19.11.2004 it was reported by The Hindu as under:

“The Shivalik hills, where Karoran village is situated, have highly erodable soil and constitute one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country. As overgrazing and mutilation by the villagers would cause soil erosion, which would lead to floods and consequently failure of crops in the plains, closure of the hills under the Indian Forest Act by declaring them a forest area was considered. The Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900, is an instance of State legislation that imposes suitable restrictions on the use of the hills for non-forest purposes. The Central law, the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, was enacted to check further deforestation and consequent ecological imbalance.
The Bench found that the land “owned” by Sandhu and his family and the companies floated by them were part of the total area of 3,700 acres (1,480 ha) of Karoran village notified under the PLPA. Despite this unambiguous status of the land, Sandhu went on “owning” the land by asserting that it was agricultural land as per revenue records. The Bench revealed how on a single day, June 28, 1995, the records were changed to show the ownership of the land in favour of Sandhu and his associates. (Source url: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2123/stories/20041119003303800.htm)

Thus the court ordered closure of Golf Course. Some of judges were also given membership of the club. It included some High Court Judges. On April 2, 2004, Chief Justice Roy issued notices to the two judges, Justice Viney Mittal and Justice Virender Singh, who had accepted ‘ex-officio’ membership of the resort, they went on mass leave with 23 more judges. Justice Singhvi was the Senior most judge after Chief Justice. See this news:

Justice Singhvi and Bali are among the three High Court judges summoned by the Supreme Court on the administrative side to explain how 25 judges of the high court went on a mass leave on Monday. Justice Singhvi will be hard pressed to defend his conduct, especially because of the categorical denunciation in his judgment of a strike by lawyers in 2000 protesting reforms to the Civil Procedure Code.

This is the extract of Justice Singhvi’s Judgment on strike by Lawyers:

‘‘I have given thoughtful consideration to the issue of strike by lawyers and pondered over the same, over and over again. If the courts are virtually shut down on account of strike resorted to by lawyers, no litigation, be it public interest litigation or otherwise, can ever be decided. ….‘Bandhs, strikes, boycotts, picketing and dharnas are the hallmark of the modern social setup in urban India. There is a complete lack of work culture, sense of duty, civic sense and responsibility…‘‘Professional bodies of lawyers, doctors, chartered accountants, etc are not immune to this syndrome … They resort to these unethical methods of redressal of their alleged grievances totally unmindful of the grave injury caused to the common man. This is certainly not the society dreamt of by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi………In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court not much is required to be said about the decisions of statutory and non-statutory bodies to call members of legal community to go on a strike or boycott the courts or abstain from work for any reason whatsoever. Every such action will have to be treated as illegal and wholly unjustified. (Source url: http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/45485/)

What happened to the Forest Hill Golf and Country Club and Judges. Any Guesses?

NOTHING! Absolutely nothing! Nobody is corrupt or Hypocrite in India.

Justice Singhvi was elevated to Supreme Court. This is where he is now. Chief Justice B.K. Roy was sought to be transferred to the remote Gauhati High Court but then President of India did not initially did not accede to the proposal. (See: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main11.asp?filename=ts040205confidential.asp) But eventually Chief Justice B.K. Roy was transferred to Gauhati in May 2005 and again transferred to Sikkim (Smallest High Court in the country with just two judges) in September 2005 where he retired and left office as a person deserted by his own colleagues. No reasons of any kind were disclosed to public for transfers.

What is happening in Forest Hill Golf and Country Club, Chandigarh, in 2012.  Read below:

A six-day weekend golf coaching programme will be conducted from September 22 at the Forest Hill Golf and Country Club which is located just 2.5 km from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. The management of Forest Hill has taken the initiative to conduct this programme with a purpose to promote golf in the Tri-city and to provide an ideal opportunity to young working executives, college students, teenagers and women to try their hands at golf. ( Source url: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/golf-programme-to-get-underway-from-september-22/990862/)

I wonder what shall be the handicap of those judges who started playing golf so long ago? After all Justice Viney Mittal and Justice Virender Singh were not elevated to Supreme Court. Who knows?

© Sandeep Bhalla