Bombay HC 'Disturbed' Over Lawyer's Facebook Post Alleging Judges Gave Preference To Senior Advocates, Went By 'Face Value' In Passing Orders

The Bombay High Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over an advocate accusing judges of giving  'preferential treatment' to senior advocates and going by their 'face values' to pass orders.

A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Dr Neela Gokhale was 'disturbed' to note that an advocate had made some 'objectionable' post making frivolous allegations against the two judges, on social media platform Facebook. The posts were, however, later on deleted.

"We have come across this as some members of the Bar forwarded it to us. Please read it," a visibly enraged Justice Gadkari told senior advocate Girish Kulkarni, who was before the bench for a criminal matter, and was seeking adjournment. 

The bench added, "Now if we give some accommodation to you then again some other advocate will say we are biased, and go by the face value of senior counsels. But that is not the truth, let us be very clear."

The judges said such posts and actions by some advocates, was 'disturbing.'

"These are disturbing. But these are unscrupulous elements of the Bar, who have no other work to do. They don't have any productive work thus they do all these things," the bench observed in a jam-packed court hall. 

The bench said it proposed to pass an order on the very issue and name the advocate, who made the objectionable posts and make him 'viral' among the judges.

"This man wants to make us viral on social media but we will make him viral among the judiciary. We will circulate a copy of this to all the 65 judges of this HC and the 2,400 judges of the subordinate courts. So that the judges know that this is the person, who has made those allegations against sitting judges," Justice Gadkari orally remarked.

Weighing in, Kulkarni told the court that it is because of such advocates, the institution gets a bad name and if allowed to continue it will impact the institution in an adverse way.