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The Bar Council of India has taken a hard line stance on retired judges and former advocates criticizing the Supreme Court in its handling of the ongoing migrant crisis due to the COVID – 19 pandemic.
Retired judge Madan Lokur had recently written an article for The Wire on the Supreme Court’s dealing with the crisis and given the court an ‘F’ grade. The BCI strongly condemned this article and called it part of a ‘ concerted attack’, the likes of which the judiciary has never seen before, to defame and slander the Apex Court. The BCI called the retired judge part of a group of lawyers and judges who were ‘misguided’ and organizing a smear campaign against the court.
The BCI said that in light of the suo moto cognizance of the situation taken by the court such statements were especially unfounded, since the court is taking an active approach in solving the crisis.
The BCI concludes that the involvement of the former members of the Judiciary in making comments which are defamatory to the institution is unfortunate and suggests that these Judges are disgruntled for not having secured a plum posting or desired berth or post which has left them bitter and resentful.
This comes in light of the statements made by Dushyant Dave, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who in a recent speech admitted that the court should have taken a more proactive approach when it comes to dealing with the crisis. The BCI, without naming Dave, criticized his statement and called it part of a concerted attack.
The BCI also said that such statements are made due to the political agendas of these judges and lawyers, who seek to defame the government through dismissing the work of the judiciary. It also asserted that these people should become politicians and face the people directly and offer service to them, rather than slandering the judiciary.
The statements of the BCI seem retaliatory in nature and do not address the substantive aspects of the criticism against the Supreme Court for not adopting a proactive approach during the crisis. The BCI merely resorted to attacking the retired professionals who choose to speak up against the Apex Court but failed to address the legitimate concerns raised by them.
The Supreme Court has taken cognizance of the matter two months after the migrant crisis began and during that period has repeatedly pushed back deadlines and postponed discussion and judgement on the matter for weeks, while ordinary underprivileged people fail to get to their homes and are regularly dying of starvation, disease and exhaustion.
Therefore, while some statements against the Court may be uncalled for and in bad taste, there still needs to be a level of accountability that the court owes to bring relief to these people as quickly and effectively as possible, which it has failed to do. The supreme Court must realize the immense role it plays in ensuring basic human rights for ordinary Indians and to regularly keep the legislative and executive in check, in case they have apathetic attitudes or commit excesses against the people of India
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