"When the abuser issued threats and purported to disturb my mental peace, he was expecting me to give my client up and run away from the brief. But little did he realise that an advocate is trained to approach such issues from a broader social and professional perspective: of such professional hurdles faced by fellow advocates, the difficulties faced by other professionals across the society, the ways & means to remedy the situation."
NIRMALKUMAR MOHANDOSS
Just about last week, close to mid-night, I kept receiving calls from an unknown number. When I attended the phone after a few calls, a person introducing himself as my client’s opposite party in a matrimonial dispute, started questioning my locus to file the case against him. Despite advising him politely to not call during odd hours on the mid-night, the bickering kept going before I hung the call with “call me over the day”. The next few hours turned out to be a nightmare with continuous abusive calls threatening to “leave the brief and run away” or be prepared “to be finished off the next morning.” Soon my client informed me that the person who came on-line with me was creating a ruckus in front of her house and made the abusive calls to me from there to show her the extent he could go to make her bend backwards and withdraw the Court proceeding filed against him. By the time he left, he had also warned her that I would not see the light of the day the next morning.
Before my agitated mind could settle down, the next hitch came in the form of a malicious Google-map review from the abuser’s fake account that called me names and questioned my professional competence, just as a means to pull down my professional reputation in the eyes of the world. Early the next morning, all SoPs followed with lodging a police complaint, informing my professional circles about the threats, leaving a word informally to professional bodies and of course, waiting for the abuser to surprise me at my door-step. My client also lodged a police complaint, about the ruckus created the previous night, which of course was side-lined as a ‘mere family dispute’ like her earlier complaints. A week later, when the abuser entered into my client’s house and assaulted her, the police nabbed him, obtained a written assurance that he would stop harassing her and let him off scot-free. The malicious review still remains in my google profile.
When the abuser issued threats and purported to disturb my mental peace, he was expecting me to give my client up and run away from the brief. But little did he realise that an advocate is trained to approach such issues from a broader social and professional perspective: of such professional hurdles faced by fellow advocates, the difficulties faced by other professionals across the society, the ways & means to remedy the situation.
In Sh. H. Syama Sundara Rao vs Union of India & Ors., (2007 Cri.LJ 2626), while dealing with a matter where a party to the legal proceedings continuously wrote to the opposite lawyer causing embarrassment with derogatory remarks, the hon’ble Delhi High Court made the following observation:
“..one of the well-recognised principle of jurisprudential vintage is interference with or obstruction to or tendency to obstruct the administration of justice… any attempt made by a party to pressurize the opposite party or its advocate to withdraw a plea taken in the course of proceedings pending in Court, amounts to direct interference with the administration of justice… it cannot be a defence to state that any party, even if he is a party in person, enjoys a privilege to pressurize the opposite party, much less his/her advocate. In our opinion, such an act amounts to impediments in the free flow of administration of justice. Any such attempt has to be treated as an attempt to interfere with and obstruct the administration of justice…”
The Court went further and also remarked that “The Courts are under an obligation not only to protect the dignity of the Court and uphold its majesty, but also to extend the umbrella of protection to all the limbs of administration of justice and advocates, while discharging their professional duties, also play a pivotal role in the administration and dispensation of justice. It is thus the duty of the Courts to protect the advocate from being cowed down into submission and under pressure of threat of menace from any quarter and thus abandon their clients by withdrawing pleas taken on their behalf or by withdrawing from the brief itself, which may prove fatal not only to the legal proceedings in question but also permit an impression to gain ground that adoption of such tactics is permissible or even acceptable. Failure to deal with such conduct and nip it in the bid shall result in the justice system itself taking a severe knocking, which tendency must be put down as it amounts to direct interference with the administration of justice…”
There are a few other judgments of the hon’ble Supreme Court also addressing similar issues faced by advocates in the dispensation of their professional calling.
Acceding to the long pending demand, the Bar Council of India recently came up with a draft ‘Advocates Protection Bill, 2021’ providing among other things, punishment to offenders, compensation, police protection to advocates under threat in their professional pursuit etc. There are already several discussions, a few international resolutions, draft legal documents like UNHRC Resolution on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, that insist on providing necessary protection to advocates discharging their professional duties free of any fear, threats, intimidation and harassment. In a few countries across the globe, restraining orders are also reliefs granted to professionals facing interference, disturbance or external influence while effectively discharging their duties.
Though I signed up to this profession with knowledge that I am likely to face professional hurdles and threats from opposite parties, such a situation in a matrimonial dispute came as quite a shock to me. This is because such disputes could at any-time be settled through counselling, mediation or any other recognised alternative dispute resolution system including a simple compromise or consensual settlement between the parties. This exposes the plight of advocates while representing clients against large political/social/economical institutions, powerful and rich members of the society, hard-bound criminals etc. The role of advocates in the administration of justice is quite significant and any interference with their professional duty is likely to derail the entire legal system. The fact that advocates have always been instrumental in formation of public opinion, bringing about social reforms and establishing an egalitarian society, calls for a more just and secure environment for them to function independently.
The brutal murder of advocate Gattu Vamana Rao and his wife PV Nagamani, while he was discharging his professional duty, in a busy highway in Telengana during broad daylight in February 2021 was followed by discussions on the need for protecting advocates. The incident was followed by protests from the bar before things went back to the cold storage. A simple google search lists down articles written about many such incidents, both minor & major, some of which resulting in loss of lives, property, permanent disfigurement/disability of advocates in their professional pursuit.
Needless to state, the State has the duty to enforce the right of every citizen to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India. This right shall find meaning only if it includes carrying on such profession without any fear, threat, abuse, intimidation or any other form of external illegal interference/obstruction. But the need for a law to protect them still remains as discussions and paper articles.
There is also an urgent need for the State Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India to intervene in so far as it’s their function under Section 6 and 7 of the Advocates Act, 1961 respectively to ‘safeguard the rights, privileges and interest of advocates.’ By a press release dated 02.07.2021, the BCI shared the above stated Advocates Protection Bill, 2021 for inputs. According to the press release, “The advocates fraternity is literally acting as one of the essential wings of the justice delivery system akin to the police and the judiciary. While the police and judiciary have access to protection, social security and even privileges; the most important link between the two who argue and present the cases/matters in courts is/are not given proper protection against the nefarious designs of anti-social elements.” In exercise of their statutory functions, the BCI should insist the Union Government to pass the bill at the earliest.
But will there be a political will to protect advocates in professional pursuit before a dozen more are dead? Only time should tell us.
(The author is available for comments and feedback at nirmalkumar.m.law@gmail.com)
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