Hriday Shah
The Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has been protesting against the Judges of the High Court due to their misconduct towards lawyers and their failure to address the grievances of these lawyers. In response, the HCBA abstained from work. Senior Adv. Anil Tiwari, the President of HCBA, stated that the Judges have a “Bhagwan Syndrome”, misbehaving with advocates. He added that these judges should realize that they are public servants and not Gods, therefore should refrain from using demeaning and rude language in court.
On the 9th of July, 2024, the HCBA, in their Memorandum of Grievances to the Chief Justice of Allahabad HC Arun Bhansali, mentioned the reasons for abstaining from working the next day. When they did not receive any positive response from the CJ, they abstained from working on 11th of July. In the memorandum, they even mentioned that the conduct Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal was against settled procedure and was making insulting remarks towards advocates. Justice Agarwal recently was involved in a controversy when he dismissed a petition of accused of converting a group of Hindus to Christianity by stating that such conversions would lead to the majority population soon becoming a minority.
The HCBA, on 11th of July, 2024, passed a resolution of refraining from using the words “milord” and “lordship” and further decided to abstain from working on 12th July as well. In their latest resolution, the HCBA stated, “The High Court is not a temple of justice rather is a court of justice and the judges are also the public servants for which they are being paid from the public exchequer and are appointed to serve the public at large.” HCBA stated that they would address the Judges as “Sir”, “Your Honour” or “Mannaniya”.
The memorandum also added that the High Court’s “very old tradition” of revising the list of new cases or cases that are not listed is a practice that many judges, according to the HCBA, do not adhere to. The Allahabad High Court’s registry’s failure to give the HCBA access to the advocate roll numbers was brought to the CJ’s attention. HCBA warned lawyers that any advocate acting against their resolution would have their membership cancelled. Tiwari further emphasised on the fact that the judiciary will collapse from the inside if such judges are not removed due to their “Bhagwan Syndrome”.