'Dangerous Precedent' : Supreme Court Lawyers Urge SCBA To Recall Resolutions Proposed Against Kapil Sibal & NK Kaul

Several members of the Supreme Court Bar Association have expressed anguish at the resolutions proposed by certain other members of the Association to reprimand Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Neeraj Kishan Kaul for apologising to the Chief Justice of India for the outbursts of SCBA President Senior Advocate Vikas Singh.

A letter, endorsed by over 470 lawyers( including 53 senior advocates) at the time of publication of the report, has been sent to the SCBA Secretary seeking recall of the resolutions proposed against Sibal and Kaul.

"We believe that the proposed Resolutions are antithetical to the core values that the SCBA and the Bar are meant to uphold and stand for", the letter stated while cautioning that it would be an "unprecedented and dangerous" move by the SCBA to call into question the views expressed by advocates inside a courtroom

The senior lawyers who have endorsed this letter include Fali S Nariman, Mukul Rohatgi, CS Vaidyanathan, Arvind Datar, KV Vishwanathan, Parag Tripathi, Chander Uday Singh, Huzefa Ahmadi etc. Former Attorney General for India KK Venugopal has also written a separate letter to Vikas Singh against the proposed move.

The resolutions proposed against Sibal and Kaul are scheduled to be considered in the Annual General Body meeting of the SCBA convened on March 16. The issue relates to the incidents which happened before the CJI's bench on March 2, when Senior Advocate Vikas Singh sought urgent listing of a petition filed by the SCBA seeking space for lawyers' chambers in the space allotted to the Supreme Court by the Central Government. Singh raised his voice, expressing anguish at the matter not getting listed despite it being mentioned on several earlier occasions, which was not appreciated by CJI Chandrachud. A heated exchange followed, which ended with the CJI asking Singh to leave the Court. Soon after this incident, Senior Advocates Sibal and Kaul, who were waiting in the Court for the Shiv Sena case, expressed apologies on behalf of the bar for Singh's outburst.

Following this, over 200 lawyers wrote to the SCBA proposing a resolution against Sibal and Kaul for tendering apology "without knowing the issue and without consulting anyone in the Executive Committee". They demanded that a show-cause notice be sent to the duo seeking their explanation. Another resolution has been proposed by over 180 lawyers to express solidarity with the efforts taken by Vikas Singh for chamber construction.

Expressing distress at the proposed resolutions against Sibal and Kaul, the signatories of the letter stated : "The fact that the SCBA seeks to take affront to the exercise of these very rights, which it is supposed to protect, is therefore, extremely troubling, especially when it is sought to be done in response to statements made at the Bar, and that too in the aftermath of certain events that transpired in the Courtroom of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India".

The letter stated further : 

"Today, Mr. Kapil Sibal and Mr. Neeraj Kishan Kaul are amongst the most well-regarded senior members of our Bar. They command the respect and admiration of an overwhelmingly large number of lawyers, not only for their legal acumen but also for how they conduct themselves in and outside the courtroom. When they saw an unpleasant incident unfold before them in the Chief Justice’s courtroom on 2.3.2023, it was their right, nay their duty, to state their opinion, express hurt, anguish and/or tender an apology without fear or favour. We feel that the statements made by them were necessary not only to preserve the integrity of our Institution but also to maintain cordial relations between the Bar and the Bench. We are sure you will agree that this would be one of the most fundamental objectives of the SCBA, which it must take all steps to preserve and protect. We firmly believe that Mr. Sibal and Mr. Kaul did not say anything against the interests of the Bar. Their emphasis was that the decorum of the court has to be maintained and their statements were not in the context of the merits of the matter, at all".

Full text of the letter here.

Senior Advocates who have endorsed the letter so far 

1. Fali Nariman

2.Mukul Rohatgi

3.C S Vaidyanathan

4.Arvind P Datar

5.VISWANATHAN.K.V.

6.PARAG P TRIPATHI

7.Chander Uday Singh

8.Huzefa Ahmadi

9.HARIN P RAVAL

10.Sidharth Luthra

11.Rajshekhar Rao

12.Siddharth Aggarwal

13.Jayant K Mehta

14.Krishnan Venugopal

15.PV Kapur

16.Dhruv Mehta

17.Gopal jain

18.Nikhil Nayyar

19.Gaurav Pachnanda

20.Ashish Dholakia

21.Arun Kathpalia

22.Mahalakshmi Pavani

23.Siddharth Bhatnagar

24.Akshay Makhija

25.Siddhartha Dave

26.Malvika Trivedi

27.Saurabh Kirpal

28.Darpan Wadhwa

29.Ritin Rai

30.Trideep Pais

31.Satvik Varma

32.Ms. V. Mohana

33.Gopal Sankaranarayanan

34.Pallav Shishodia

35.Aparajita Singh

36.Rana Mukherjee

37.Maninder Acharya

38.Nakul Dewan

39.Devadatt kamat

40.Meenakshi Arora

41.Tarun Gulati

42.Narender Hooda

43.Anitha shenoy

44.Amit Sibal

45.Nagesh Puthuge

46.Krishnendu Datta

47.Sajan Poovayya

48.Sudhir Nandrajog

49.Percival Billimoria

50.Akhil Sibal

51.Arvind varma

52.Dama Seshadri Naidu

53.Rebecca John