(From- Vaqeel-e-Saltanat)
At the closure of 2024, let me record this before memory fades...
Birth of a New Order
8th May 2024, brought hitherto
unimaginable to our court. An order took birth to make the Bench of the High
Court somewhere outside Nainital.
Suddenly, unprecedented chain of
events started. Dinesh Chandra Singh Rawat (DCS), who was the President of our
Bar, otherwise known for his very cool temper, came to the chief justice’s court
room and made strongest protest to the judges that such sudden move to make a bench
is unacceptable.
Before I could even realize why DCS Rawat is shouting, Saurabh Adhikari (Secretary of the Bar), Vijay Pal, Jitendra Chaudhary joined the cacophony too. Immediately
rest of the Bar members followed the suit.
Alas! All the loud protests were
silenced with one dictate. “You can go on Strike.” We all got awestruck in a shock. We were
frantically searching in the court room from where that suggestion came? When we
realized the source of the voice, we could not believe it!
After the profound judgment delivered by one of our great Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan in this very
court room, strike by lawyers had been demoted to a status of a professional
sin.
Agitated bustle started below the chief
justice’s court room. Bound by Justice Ranganathan’s jurisprudence we decided
not to favor strike.
We all were in real dilemma what to do! However, we all
decided to again request the Hon’ble Chief Justice. DCS Rawat hurriedly called me and
asked to make a representation.
An urgent meeting started in the Bar
room. Advocates started protesting
outside the Bar room and situation was going out of hand. It
was already 2 o’clock and lunch time was over. I sent two printed copies to DCS Rawat and Saurabh, who were by now in the chief justices’ court
room along with the entire bar to make an entreaty once again.
By lunch time, to our horror, a large
contingent of police party was deployed at the gates of the High Court. It was
surprising to see such force and threat at the gates of the court. And more surprising to hear the chief justice claiming ignorance about the force deployment !
After lunch recess, all the members
of the Bar, requested the chief justice to recall the order. It was promised
too. But once again, keeping the extempore nature of entire affair alive, on 10th
May we all got an online order uploaded having all kind of surprises for
us. Referendum was ordered by the judicial order! It was Friday afternoon. Many
lawyers had already left the court premises. Sad and surprised we too left for
home.
Saturday morning, Prabhat Vohra
called me to know whether High Court Bar is going to challenge the order in
Supreme Court? I had no idea. I had not discussed the same with anyone till
then.
Anticipating the futility of individual lawyers going to Supreme Court, I
ringed DCS Rawat and Saurabh to enquire about it. They themselves were troubled with
the idea of everybody rushing to Supreme Court individually. We decided to call a meeting on Monday of the
General House of the High Court Bar. I remember Saurabh told me that in all
likelihood, the General House will approve the filing of SLP so it will be
better we start preparing for the same.
Filing of Special Leave Petition.
Sunday Morning, I called everyone to
office and we started preparing the SLP. By the noon our draft was ready and I
called an old friend, advocate Vinodh Kanna in Delhi and discussed the matter
with him. Mr. Kanna is a senior AOR and for the cause of the High Court Bar, he
instantly decided to help. He asked me to send the draft SLP. By the late
evening on Sunday itself, our draft was final and ready to be filed. We started
waiting for the approval of General House to be held on Monday.
On Monday, since morning everybody
was very agitated against the shifting order. General House assembled and in
one voice it was decided that the High Court Bar Association must file SLP
before the Supreme Court against the proposed shifting of High Court and the
referendum.
As the draft SLP was already
discussed and final I requested Mr. Kanna to file the same as soon as possible.
With lightning speed, he filed the SLP online by the midnight.
Listing in the last week before vacation.
It was mid of May. It was the last
week of full working of the Supreme Court before summer vacation. Our anxieties
for listing and hearing shot up. Not everybody could reach me for giving advice
but poor DCS Rawat and Saurabh were bombarded with all kind of advices regarding
urgent mentioning and hearing of the case!
People even advised that certain of
our grounds are not good. Moving further amidst all the uncertainty and advices,
we requested our AOR Mr. Kanna to try for an urgent listing of the matter. He
filed an e-mail to the registrar and informed him about the ongoing referendum
in Uttarakhand on the basis of the judgement.
On the last day Mr. Kanna informed
that our e-mail mention has been sent to Justice Sanjeev Khanna for
consideration as the Chief Justice of India had gone to South Africa for a
conference. The good news came to us by the evening that our mention has been
allowed and the matter has been directed for urgent listing during vacation.
The Senior Counsel.
For some mysterious curiosity, since the day we filed the SLP, everyone was overcurious to know which Senior Advocate we are going to engage. ‘Whom are you engaging as Senior?’ It was the predominant question from everyone. Although we ourselves had no reply to that. We did not know who will be available during vacations.
Moreover, we had to find someone who could take
our case on pro bono basis. The bar did not have sufficient funds to pay
the hefty fees usually charged by the senior counsels in the Supreme Court.
DCS Rawat, Saurabh, Vijay Pal and BD Pandey, already
puzzled with the questions of the bar members, decided to leave Nainital and
go to Delhi. Fortunately, we got appointment with Shri Rakesh Dewedi. He was briefed about the matter and thankfully the Ld. Senior Counsel agreed to
take our case on pro bono basis. However, he had put a caveat that since its
vacation he may be travelling abroad.
I remember now that after the
conference, Mr. Kanna called me and specially praised about the fine legal
points raised by one of our advocates who looked like an ‘old Nepali gentleman’! I understood that he was referring to BD Pandey.
Finally, the cause list came and we
knew that our matter is going to be heard on 24th May as Item no 16 in Court no 3. We also came
to know that the Senior Counsel Shri Rakesh Dewedi, as he had informed us too,
was not available in Delhi.
On 22nd May, in the
morning I readied for the High Court, however somehow, I felt that I should
leave for Delhi. I called Rafat and informed him about our immediate travel for
Delhi. I asked him to pack some clothes as we will be in Delhi for few days.
Before leaving I called Irum to office and told her to attend the matters in
the High Court in our absence. Pallavi was already in Delhi. I informed her
about our travel plans and scheduled meeting with Mr. Kanna in the evening.
I called DCS Rawat and Saurabh before
leaving. They informed that they can leave only in afternoon as B D Pandey has
some urgent matter in High Court. I did not want to miss the meeting with the
AOR as it was imminent now to find out the availability of a Senior Counsel for
Fryday hearing.
Rafat and me reached
Noida at about 4 pm and straightaway reached to the office of Mr. Kanna. As expected, due to vacations no senior was readily
available in Delhi. Finally, we could get an appointment with Shri. P.B. Suresh
for the next morning in his office at 19, Anand Lok.
23rd May, morning, I along
with Rafat reached to the office of Shri. P.B.Suresh. DCS, Saurabh, Vijay Pal, BD Pandey, Yogesh
Pachulia, Jaishankar had already reached there and were waiting for me. We
decided to wait further for Mr. Kanna to arrive. Soon he also came along with his
associate.
We were a bit anxious for the
meeting. The office was in a basement. It was a bit of respite in otherwise hot
weather outside. We were happy to know that Senior Advocate had already gone
through with the entire case. Fortunately, he had also dealt with such a
similar case on state reorganization from Andhra Pradesh. The entire discussion
was very enlightening. We got to know few more legal fine points of our case.
Mr. Vipin Nayyar, who was the president of SCAOR Association, also agreed to join the conference and our president DCS Rawat requested to Mr. Nayyar to join us in the
court hearing too, for which he graciously agreed.
The Court Hearing, 24 June 2024.
The final hour was approaching fast. Matter was listed as Iten no 16 in Court no 4 before Justice P S Narasimha and Justice Sanjay Karol .
I remember the long night before the hearing when Dinesh neither slept himself nor let me sleep at all.
Although we were confident about or case, still there was a strange nervousness in all of us.
We all were lawyers but in this case we
all were litigants too. This is the first time, I felt what a
client feels when we represent him in court.
Finally, the case was called, Senior Counsel PB Suresh opened arguments for us. Mr. Kanna and all of us also stood up to assist him. Solicitor General Mr. Tushar Mehta also came representing the State of Uttarakhand. At first, the Judges were apprehensive about the nature of the impugned order.
However, on second look, they completely understood our grievance. The order had much more serious repercussions than it reflected on its first reading.
Solicitor General also expressed State’s dilemma in executing the order, which has initiated a referendum in the entire State. Such referendum on regional lines was certainly not in the best interest of the integrity of the state.
2 comments:
Sir we all are highly obliged fir it
I started reading and finished in one go. Nicely narrated and interesting read. Great 👍
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