Majority Members Of SCBA Executive Committee Condemn Notice Issued By President, VP. Secretary Against Dave

The majority of Executive Committee members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have expressed shock at the response sent by SCBA President, Vice President and Secretary, wherein the trio had condemned the remarks made by Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The statement issued by 13 out of 21 members reads as follows;

, “The following EC members of SCBA clarify that the President, Vice President & Hony Secretary issued the response without holding any meeting of the EC and without deliberating the issue in its proper perspective in the EC meeting. We do not subscribe to the views of the above said office Bearers condemning the “scurrilous and baseless personal attack.”

The members have, therefore, condemned the “unilateral action” and dissociated themselves from the response that they assert was issued in the President, VP and Secretary’s “personal capacity”.

In a press release issued on 28 September, the SCBA had taken serious objection to Mr. Dave’s remarks, opining that the remarks were “baseless, scandalous and irresponsible”. While standing in solidarity with Justice Patel and acknowledging the need for transparency in matters of elevation, a press release by SCBA had said:

“The topic of discussion was the resignation by Justice Jayant Patel of the Karnataka High Court. Mr. Dave participating in the said programme made statements without any basis against Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India making wild personal allegations. The statement made by Mr. Dave clearly amounts to denigrating the dignity and prestige of the Supreme Court of India and the entire legal fraternity.

We accordingly condemn the scurrilous and baseless personal attack made by Mr. Dave on the head of the Institution. He has been in the habit of targeting successive Chief Justices in recent past without any basis.”

The impugned remarks were made in response to Justice Jayant M. Patel’s resignation last week, allegedly to protest his non-elevation as the Chief Justice of any High Court despite his seniority. While the issue of Justice Patel’s elevation has been brought up several times in the past, the final stroke seems to have been his transfer to Allahabad High Court, where he was to be the third senior-most Judge.

Participating in a discussion during the programme “Left, Right and Centre” on NDTV 24X7 last week, Mr. Dave had minced no words while condemning not just Justice Patel’s transfer but also the functioning of the collegium system of judicial appointments as a whole.

He had said:

“Collegium has been making thunderous sounds about independence of judiciary. They wrested control of judicial appointments from executive under the garb of freeing the judiciary from political interference, but that is precisely what is happening today. 

It is the darkest day in Indian judiciary. I did not expect much from the Hon’ble Chief Justice since he is compromised because of serious allegations against him in the Kalikho Pul suicide note and the CBI case pending against him. But the four other Collegium members are outstanding, and men of absolute integrity and I have great respect. So I am terribly shocked that this decision has been taken.”