Gujarat High Court advocates to probe Judges conduct

Gujarat High Court Bar Association has formed two committees. One will look into the allegation of of lack of integrity of Judges while the other isto resolve junior lawyers' grievances against judges. The unprecedented move follows a letter by the then Additional Advocate General Mihir Joshi raising doubts about the integrity of High Court judges.
Though Joshi had to quit after the letter snowballed into a controversy in Bar and Bench, Joshi is getting support from the advocates. Setting of the two committees reflects the hostile mood of the advocates, particularly juniors. The Associarion had initially dubbed the letter as vague. However, it has now endorsed it.
The Association adopted a unanimous resolution in this regard at a general meeting. The association has appointed two five-member committees convened by K J Shethana, GHCBA president, to look into the allegations. GHCBA vice-president Anil Dave said, "The committee will look into the allegations. Any advocate can approach the committees with material facts and it will look into it. If it finds anything prima facie credible, it will send a confidential report to the Chief Justice of India."
The second committee will take up cases where junior lawyers are allegedly treated shabbily by the judges. The Association has also raised the issue that the sitting order of the judges was frequently changed, sometimes at critical stages of cases and did not always confirm to the rules of the court. According to the GHCBA, there have been 38 such changes in the daily roster in the last six months.
First Committee has five senior lawyers, K J Shethna, SB Vakil, Mihir Thakor, Nirupam Nanavati and Sudhir Nanavati while the committee for junior advocates has K G Vakharia, PM Thakkar and Saurabh Soparkar.
Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad
2008-04-04 09:53:39
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