The Lutyens lawyers’ cabal was yet again successful in bullying the apex court to accede to their unreasonable demands. CJI SA Bobde, whose tenure ended on April 23, came under heavy criticism of the Lutyens lawyer cabal for his decision to take over cases related to the Chinese Virus pandemic pending in various high courts (HC).
Ex-CJI Bobde had stated that six different HCs conducting hearings on pandemic-related issues would lead to confusion and hence the apex court would hear all these matters together. The bench headed by Bobde and including Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat had also appointed senior advocate Harish Salve as amicus curiae to assist the court in the suo moto proceedings.
The decision came under heavy criticism of the Lutyens lawyer cabal which included usual suspects such as Dushyant Dave, Indira Jaising, Sanjay Hegde, Mukul Rohatgi, and others. The cabal wasn’t only opposed to the suo moto taking up of the case by the apex court but also by the decision to appoint Salve as the amicus in the matter.
Advocate Salve put forward a request to recuse himself citing the sensitivity of the case and also due to the allegation of conflict of interest as he was representing Vedanta which wanted to open its Tamil Nadu plant to manufacture oxygen as the country has been faced with an acute shortage of the same. He also cited the narrative in court which was lacking in grace in a reference to the comments made by senior advocates.
Responding to Salve’s plea CJI Bobde said “We understand that you are pained by what some of the supposedly senior advocates have said. We are also not happy about it. We understand your sentiment”.
The undue pressure being brought upon the judiciary wasn’t lost on anyone as SG (Solicitor General) Tushar Mehta remarked:
The country is not in a position to have a maligning competition in the media! It was the highest court of the country which took cognizance of an issue that is affecting every citizen of the country! When I read and saw certain comments that the digital and print media are broadcasting, I realized that it is virtually abusive! Someday somebody from the judiciary has to take cognizance of that!
And I request Mr. Salve to reconsider his request for recusal! Once anyone succumbs to this, there would not be one neutral person to be appointed who would not be so pressurised! It is not about Mr. Salve or Chief Justice of India Bobde!
Justice Rao also pointed out that criticism was being dished out based on nonexisting things and it was being made out as if the apex court was acting as an impediment to the HCs passing orders on the issue. Rao even made it clear to Dave that the latter was attributing motives to the apex court without even reading the order.
The impunity and arrogance of the Lutyens gang were amply on display when Dave responded to SG’s statement that advocates shouldn’t issue public statements based on perception by saying “You are the last person to be making this argument! You have been defending the government based on perception!”. If this isn’t arrogance, then what is?
If more proof of arrogance of the Lutyens lawyer was needed then one only had to look at the remarks of the CJ after SG Mehta sought time till Tuesday to file his counter-affidavit.
Live Law says:
As the advocates continued to rage on, CJ observed, “We may have to shut off the mics and the screens if it continues like this! Don’t bring it to that! The SG wants time, so we are listing the matter on Tuesday and we are shutting off the matter for now”
The CJI then posted the matter for Tuesday and closed the proceeding after dictating the order relieving Advocate Salve from the amicus curiae duty. The cabal did succeed in having its way as it has on numerous occasions before this one.
We shall take a look at some of the ’eminent’ Lutyens lawyers and their comments speaking to Live Law criticizing the apex court for its decision.
1) Senior Advocate and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi opined that it was a retrograde step that would make HCs redundant while stating “I completely disagree with the view of the SC. High Courts are competent to deal with the issue as it unfolds in the concerned state. Local conditions and local problems and the solutions can be best addressed by them. It’s a retrograde step. High Courts will become redundant now”.
Mukul Rohatgi was the Additional SG under the Vajpayee government and was the attorney general for 3 full years during the first term of the Modi government. A close personal friend of late Arun Jaitley, Rohatgi is believed to be not as viciously anti-Hindu as openly Congress-leaning or Hinduphobic lawyers like Sibal, Dushyant Dave, Rajeev Dhawan, Prashant Bhushan, Sanjay Hegde, Indra Jaisingh, etc. He defended makes of Hindumisic web series Tandav.
2) Ex-president of Supreme Court (SC) Bar Association and a known Hinduphobic Dushyant Dave opined:
The Supreme Court’s suo moto intervention seeking to restrain the High Courts from discharging their constitutional duties is absolutely uncalled for and unjustified, firstly, for the simple reason that the Supreme Court has been sitting as a silent spectator to the happenings in the country for the last few months. They should have seen the writing on the wall. The Supreme Court, if at all it was concerned about the citizens, should have intervened suo moto earlier to ensure that the government was functioning properly and that adequate hospitals, vaccines, medicines, oxygen supplies were available for COVID patients. The government has been sleeping and the Supreme Court also has been sleeping unfortunately over this period. Therefore, morally Supreme Court is unjustified in intervening when the High Courts have decided to intervene.
While he made no bones about his hatred for the Modi government while targeting the SC, he even attacked the appointment of Advocate Salve:
Whatever be his abilities, frankly Mr. Salve has a conflict of interest, because he represents the biggest industrial houses in the country, including Sterlite. Mr.Salve’s statement to reopen the Sterlite plant itself frankly disentitles him to carry on as amicus curiae…Mr.Salve’s proximity to the government of the day is well known. He has appeared to defend the government directly and indirectly in a large number of cases during Covid.
According to Dave if judges don’t act or pass judgements as per Dave’s wishes then they are wrong as was evident from his comment when he said:
I am deeply disappointed, that judges sitting with the Chief Justice or judges like Justice Arun Mishra have never been able to stop anything wrong from being done by the presiding judge. It is a really sad commentary on the Supreme Court.
Well, that shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Dushyant Dave harbors a deep-seated hatred for anyone who so much as devotes a couple of lines praising PM Modi whom he along with his Lutyens cabal detest to the core. It is a good time to recall how the SC Bar Association led by Dushyant Dave had censured Justice Mishra.
In an unprecedented step, the Supreme Court Bar Association led by Dushyant Dave adopted a resolution censuring Justice Mishra for ‘singing paeans’ to the PM and appealed to judges to refrain from having close proximity with political executives to maintain judicial independence and faith of the public in courts.
SC accused Dave of spreading misinformation and as Senior journalist, Minhaz Merchant pointed out “Dave, Bhushan, Jaising, Dhawan, Sibal & Singhvi hunt in packs. New CJI must crack the whip. End bullying that led Salve to recuse.“
3) Sanjay Hegde remarked, “As the deadly second wave of the pandemic rages and the virus goes into exponential growth, killing thousands of Indians, we must squarely ask, has the Supreme Court been complicit in the destruction of human life?”
Hegde is not just a Hindudveshi but also a known fake news peddler and it won’t be wrong to call him an AAP sympathizer.
4) Lutyens lawyer and Nehru family loyalist Indira Jaising was of the opinion “As the Supreme Court steps into the suo moto case today, let the judges remember the late-night Delhi High Court order saved lives . Best to let High Courts do their job”.
Hindupost had written about FCRA fraud by Indira Jaising and her lawyer husband Anand Grover and how her heart bleeds for rapists. She and Dushyant Dave were among those Congress lawyers who received lakhs from the Islamist terrorist outfit PFI.
Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi had exposed the Lutyens lawyer cabal who have yet again succeeded in forcing the apex court to do their bidding. Here’s what Ranjan Gogoi had to say about the cabal as reported by Swarajya Mag:
Under attack from the Lutyens lobby for accepting the nomination so soon after retiring as CJI, Gogoi came out all guns blazing to throw light on the extraordinary powers wielded over judges by a few influential lawyers.
He is quoted in The Times of India as saying, “Independence of judiciary means breaking the stranglehold of half-a-dozen people over it. Unless this stranglehold is broken, the judiciary cannot be independent. They hold judges to ransom. If a case is not decided in a particular way advocated by them, they malign the judge in every way possible. I fear for the status quoist judges who do not want to take them on and who want to retire peacefully.”
Earlier, his predecessor Dipak Misra also came under attack due to the judge B H Loya verdict, where Congress’ high-priced legal mind, Kapil Sibal, went so far as to seek his impeachment. The “lobby” wanted the judiciary to probe the unexpected death of CBI special judge Loya only because he had been hearing the case against Amit Shah, then Bharatiya Janata Party president. A three-judge bench headed by Misra said that there was nothing suspicious in the death of judge Loya.
That the stranglehold of the Lutyens cabal as pointed out by ex-CJI Gogoi hasn’t been broken is amply apparent in the way the cabal was able to arm-twist the apex court to go on the defensive and also force Advocate Salve to recuse himself.
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