New Delhi: Chief Justice of India HL Dattu on Friday expressed concern over the Allahabad district court firing incident leading to the death of an advocate and the protest paralysing work at High Court and state's subordinate judiciary.
"I am concerned about the Allahabad incident. I am in touch with the chief justice of that particular place and am sure we will solve this problem at the earliest," Dattu said.
The chief justice said that if the need arises he will go over to Allahabad and talk and convince the Bar over there.
"It may not be good for them (lawyers) as well as the institution to close it down and it is better to solve the problem amicably," Dattu said at a function organized by Supreme Court Bar Association to bid farewell to Justice S J Mukhopadhaya who is retiring tomorrow.
The Chief Justice's remark came after Supreme Court Bar Association's president Dushyant Dave requested his intervention in the issue.
"We request your intervention in solving the problem at Allahabad. For independent judiciary it is necessary that their is independent bar. They need not be threatened in any way. Both Bar and Bench are the two wheels of chariot and if any one wheels falls, the chariot would get disbalanced," Dave said.
On March 11, 30-year-old advocate Nabi Ahmed was allegedly shot by a police sub-inspector in the court premises resulting in violent protests by lawyers and suspension of work in High Court and subordinate judiciary.
Chief Justice was all praise for Justice Mukhopadhaya for his "fearless, sensitive and fair" legal acumen and called him elder brother and said in turbulent times, he would seek his guidance.
"Justice Mukhpadhaya has held the pristine of judiciary and upheld the basic tenets of law. He favoured none and he feared none," the chief justice said about Justice Mukhopadhaya, who was in news recently after his bench which was hearing the anticipatory bail plea of social activist Teesta Setalvad was changed at the eleventh hour.
There was no reason forthcoming from the apex court registry for taking away the matter from the bench headed by Justice Mukhopadhaya, which had put some tough questions against the plea for anticipatory bail before granting Setalvad and her husband protection from arrest by passing order on February 13.
Justice Mukhopadhaya in his address recalled his journey
from being a medical representative at Patna to becoming a Supreme Court judge in Delhi.
"When I started my legal practice in 1970's, those were the days of lengthy arguments. I used to wrap up my arguments in few minutes to which some asked how do you do this," he said.
"I replied to them, like in sales job you sell things by highlighting the merits of your product and pointing to demerits of your competitor's product, so here also I highlighted the merits of my case," he said leading to laughter.
