The Karnataka High Court expunged adverse remarks made against Advocate by Customs Commissioner and said that the lawyers need an atmosphere where they can argue fearlessly.
The Petitioner, M.S. Srinivasa is an advocate by occupation; he had appeared for the appellant in appeal ; the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) vide order dated dismissed the appeal; in the course of order, the Commissioner has made certain observations which said, the objective of imposing a penalty of Rs.15000/- is only to impress upon the appellant that they ought to be more careful in future and do justice to their role and duties rather than take shelter behind technicalities and advocates who think they can defend the indefensible by giving their own skewed understanding of the law and misguiding appellants. The portion of the observations that are highlighted would reflect on the professional conduct of the petitioner, argues his counsel; learned Panel Counsel appearing for the respondents opposes the writ petition contending that the said observations are case specific and therefore petitioner may not read too much in that; so contending he seeks dismissal of the writ petition.
The single judge bench of Justice Krishna Dixit held that the legal profession is of vital importance not only to the administration of justice but also for the rule of law & good governance; lawyers are to the civil society what soldiers are to the frontiers of a nation; lawyers profession is the only profession constitutionally recognized; Marcus Tullius Cicero centuries ago called this profession as the ‘noble profession’; lawyers lend voice to the voiceless; they stand unfazed during social tumult; our Freedom Struggle was led by lawyers; our Constitution is the child of great legal brains; of course, others too have contributed a lot, cannot be denied; the great principles of governance and constitutional doctrines like the doctrine of Basic Structure are the contribution of tall lawyers; it is they who draw the chariot of law & justice; words fall short to extol the greatness of this profession.
“In some occasions that are marked by their rarity, one may transcend the traditional contours of professional conduct; but this happens even with adjudicators as well; the ultimate object is to do justice to the cause; it hardly needs to be stated that the judgments & orders should not be written with a pen dipped in acid; after all ‘acidity’ affects health; the acidic words rob away the living beauty of the scripts; viewed from this angle, the highlighted portion of the observations in the subject order need to be expunged; it is in the best interest of both the stakeholders, namely, Bar & the Bench; such expunction would only add to the beauty of the order in question which is meticulously texted with appreciable articulation,” the court said.
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