No senior advocate steps up for judges: CJI

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India J S Khehar on Monday angrily demanded why senior advocates at the bar never step up to defend the judiciary as an “institution” or defend judges when they are under attack, but are more than willing to defend anyone who targets them.

“Whenever someone abuses us, you stand for them. Why never for us? You never do that for us. When people make allegations against us left, right and centre, why don’t senior lawyers speak up. What are they doing? Sleeping at home?” the CJI, who has been under attack over the Kalikho Pul alleged suicide letter, said.

The CJI was sitting alongside Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul when he made these impassioned observations in a case of contempt initiated by the court against a young lawyer for insinuating that matters were being manipulated in the registry, the court’s executive wing, to indulge in bench-hunting.

“When these allegations were made first thing in the morning, I was wondering what happened because I am the one assigning benches,” the CJI remarked.

The CJI has threatened to take action against the lawyer for contempt, prompting the bar president Rupinder Singh Suri and other lawyers to come to his rescue.