Source – telegraphindia.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Kerala High Court Advocates Association has urged the Chief Justice of India to decide either way on the issues raised by senior lawyer Dushyant Dave on cases involving the Adani group that were listed before the summer vacation benches of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On August 16, in a letter to all the judges of the Supreme Court, Dave had drawn attention to the \u201csurprising\u201d inclusion of senior-most judges<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in the vacation benches and the swift manner in which two cases linked to the Adani group were taken up by a bench that included Justice Arun Mishra. Dave also referred to two other matters of the group heard earlier by Justice Mishra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am told that the total benefit to this corporate client from these two judgments will run into thousands of crores,\u201d Dave said in the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that he was not commenting on the merits of the judgments but confining himself to alleged procedural violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Adani group had then said the insinuations made in the letter \u201care wholly unwarranted\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, with nearly three months having passed since the letter was sent and Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi is entering the last week of his tenure, the Kerala High Court Advocates Association has pleaded for follow-up action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter dated October 29, the Kerala association sought \u201cappropriate resolution\u201d on Dave\u2019s letter \u201ccontaining specific and serious allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunil Jacob Jose, president of the Kerala High Court Advocates\u2019 Association, said on Thursday that \u201cwe are not joining issue with anybody\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs mentioned clearly in our letter, we stand only for the majesty of the institution,\u201d Jose told The Telegraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The executive committee of the association took up the matter based on a letter submitted by senior advocate George Poonthottam, who had urged the association to take up the matter before the Chief Justice of India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll we are saying is that if the honourable Chief Justice of India feels there is truth in the allegations cited by Dave, appropriate action must be taken. If the allegations are unfounded, appropriate action must be taken against the author of the letter (Dave),\u201d Jose said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to say who is right and who is wrong. It is up to the Chief Justice of India to find out,\u201d Jose added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dave had said in his August 16 letter that \u201cthe Chief Justice of India surprised the entire legal fraternity when he constituted benches for the summer vacation for 2019 which included, besides himself, Honourable Justice Mr. Arun Mishra from amongst the senior-most of the judges. This was surprising because generally, if never, senior judges did not sit on vacation benches. Whatever may have been the justification, it has resulted in shocking outcomes in a few matters heard during the summer vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point, Dave said in the letter: \u201cIt is disturbing that the Supreme Court of India should take up regular matters of a large corporate house during summer vacation in such a cavalier fashion and decide them in its favour. It raises very serious and disturbing questions as to whether the registry had sought concurrence from the Honourable Chief Justice for listing such matters and if not whether the registry became party to such listing in violation of its own practice and procedure. But most of all, why were the two matters listed before the bench presided by Justice Arun Mishra when other benches were available during May 2019 vacation?\u201d<\/p>\n