SCBA President Dushyant Dave resigns

Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave has resigned, allegedly following a rift between the President Dave and Secretary, Gaurav Bhatia. He tendered his resignation, with “sincere apology” for taking the step, stating, “I must place on record my gratitude to all those who put their faith in me and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I must however tender my sincere apology for taking this step. I hope and trust you will understand my predicament. I wish the SCBA lots of good luck and assure that as a Member I will always be happy to extend my help if needed.”

The step was taken after Mr. Dave was condemned at the Executive Committee meeting held at 4 today.

The rift between SCBA President and Secretary also becomes evident through a letter addressed to the secretary on February 14, wherein Mr. Dave had expressed his “strong reservations” about the initiation of process of maintaining a Register in memory of retiring Judges on retirement of Justice Iqbal, without his approval.

“You would recall our discussion on Wednesday last (followed by mysms to that effect) saying that though I did not approve of this move, I would like the EC to consider the same in its meeting fixed on Monday the 15th Feb. However without informing me and keeping me in complete dark you went ahead and got the same done on Saturday and Sunday. The whole exercise was carried out in a manner contrary to ethos and working of the EC and clearly improperly, if not illegally,” the letter had said.

Mr. Dave had explained that such a move may appear to be an appeasement of the Judges and there may be serious issues about who should write and who should not, considering the fact that someone may write unpleasant things. He further found it “improper” on the part of the secretary to take the step of going to the Chief Justice of India and wanting Judges to write their views in the register.

The letter rapped Mr. Bhatia for the conduct and stated, “You have clearly crossed the line on this. I am informed now that your preposterous request was considered by the Hon’ble Judges in the common room and unanimously rejected. This itself shows how wrong you were in making such an unwise move and that too behind my back. I believe such a move has brought our esteemed Association in bad light amongst the Hon’ble Judges which was wholly unavoidable and unnecessary.” He was warned to not take any such action in future, without informing the EC as well as the President.

Read the resignation letter here.

Dear Friends,

I hereby tender my resignation as the President of the SCBA with immediate effect. I must place on record my gratitude to all those who put their faith in me and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I must however tender my sincere apology for taking this step. I hope and trust you will understand my predicament. I wish the SCBA lots of good luck and assure that as a Member I will always be happy to extend my help if needed.

With Warmest Regards to each of you,

Dushyant Dave

Read Dave's letter to Bhatia here.

14th February, 2016

To,

The Honorary Secretary,

Supreme Court Bar Association.

Dear Mr Bhatia,

I am in receipt of the minutes of the last meeting of the EC and am surprised to find that the last part of the item 18 in your draft is added without any basis. No one including your goodself said anything to that effect. Your insertion of last paragraph is therefor an afterthought and does not reflect what actually transpired in the meeting.

You may therefor remove that part from the minutes. Secondly and more importantly, I would like to place on record my strong reservations about the action you have taken to initiate process of maintaining a Register in memory of retiring Judges on retirement of Hon’ble Justice Iqbal without my prior approval and behind my back by taking consent of some of the Members of the EC. You would recall our discussion on Wednesday last (followed by mysms to that effect) saying that though I did not approve of this move, I would like the EC to consider the same in its meeting fixed on Monday the 15th Feb. However without informing me and keeping me in complete dark you went ahead and got the same done on Saturday and Sunday. The whole exercise was carried out in a manner contrary to ethos and working of the EC and clearly improperly, if not illegally. If you did try to do it by circulation, I was never informed nor as president my prior consent was taken. I had told you that such a move may appear to be an appeasement of the Hon’ble Judges and there may be serious issues about who should write and who should not, and what if someone were to write unpleasant things. That is why I requested that matter be left to the EC for deliberation. But you went ahead in an improper way to do what you wanted. Equally, without informing me at all, you went to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and wanted Hon’ble Judges to also write their views in such a register. This was highly improper on your part. You have clearly crossed the line on this. I am informed now tha t your preposterous request was considered by the Hon’ble Judges in the common room and unanimously rejected. This itself shows how wrong you were in making such an unwise move and that too behind my back. I believe such a move has brought our esteemed Association in bad light amongst the Hon’ble Judges which was wholly unavoidable and unnecessary.

I would therefor advise you that in future you should not take any such action without informing me and without consent from the EC in a regular meeting or from me in writing. Your continued unilateral actions would be viewed seriously by the Hon’ble Members of our Bar.

I hope you will cooperate in ensuring that the EC functions in a proper manner so that it can achieve the objectives for which it is elected by the Bar.

Regards,

Dushyant Dave,

President, SCBA.