Another SC judge loses his cool over shouting by lawyers

New Delhi, December 13

In less than a week, a second Supreme Court judge on Wednesday lost his cool after lawyers tried to outshout each other and refused to hear a case, saying the court now needed to act tough against such advocates.

A Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan refused to hear a batch of petitions related to embattled firm Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL) and posted them for further hearing in the second week of February.

It all started when the Bench was hearing arguments from senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for petitioner PACL, and a lady lawyer, appearing for the respondents, intervened allegedly in a high-pitch voice.

“When one senior lawyer is speaking, there is no point for another lawyer to shout. I am otherwise very patient man but I am allergic to this type of argument. We can’t tolerate this,” Justice Sikri, who was heading the Bench, said.

“It is high time for courts to act tough against shouting lawyers to maintain discipline and decorum of court proceedings,” he said, adding that the courts need to be tough against lawyers shouting in courts.

The Bench deferred the hearing of the matter in second week of February saying it will not hear the case if the arguments were made at the bar in this manner.

Singhvi said that the PACL should not be penalised (PACL) for no fault of theirs, but the Bench refused to budge from its order and said the matter will be heard in February.

On December 7, Chief Justice Dipak Misra had warned the shouting advocates by observing that “it will not be tolerated at any cost” and raising their voice “just shows inadequacy and incompetence”.

When a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was hearing a legal question whether a Parsi woman loses her religious identity after marrying a man of different religion, it got upset over growing incidents of senior lawyers arguing on a high pitch in cases like the Babri Masjid title suit and the Delhi-Centre disputes.

The CJI had then observed: “Come what may, shouting in the courtroom will not be tolerated at any cost”. —PTI