'Advocates Must Come To Court In Proper Attire' : Supreme Court In Case Of Lawyer Who Appeared Before HC Wearing Jeans
Reminding that every advocate must appear before the Court in the proper attire as mandated by the Rules, the Supreme Court recently disposed of a petition filed by an advocate against an order passed by the Gauhati High Court expelling him from the Court for wearing jeans.The High Court had called for police personnel to remove the lawyer from the court campus. Aggrieved with the High...
Reminding that every advocate must appear before the Court in the proper attire as mandated by the Rules, the Supreme Court recently disposed of a petition filed by an advocate against an order passed by the Gauhati High Court expelling him from the Court for wearing jeans.
The High Court had called for police personnel to remove the lawyer from the court campus. Aggrieved with the High Court's direction, the lawyer approached the Supreme Court contending that the High Court had no authority to "de-Court" him with police assistance.
The Supreme Court observed that the High Court could have adjourned the matter and asked the lawyer to leave, instead of calling for the police, especially when he was neither discourteous nor unruly and had apologised to the Court.
Therefore, the Court expugned the following observation from the High Court's order : “Therefore, the Court had to call for the police personnel to decourt him outside the High Court campus.”
While disposing of the matter, the bench comprising Justices Bela Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma observed :
"It is needless to say that every advocate is expected to come to the Court in proper attire as per the Rules and behave in the Court."
Before approaching the Supreme Court, the lawyer had filed an application before the High Court seeking to recall the order to "de-court" him for wearing jeans. The High Court refused to recall the order by observing :
"If jeans can be worn in Court, then the applicant may next ask why he shall not be permitted to appear in Court in “torn” jeans, “faded” jeans, jeans with “printed patches”, which are considered to be fashionable, or why he should not be allowed to appear in black track pant, or black pajamas merely because the Gauhati High Court Rules has not specifically excluded those.”
Case Title : Bijon Kumar Mahajan v. State of Assam
Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 449