‘If Bar becomes corrupt, Bench will collapse’

Court expresses concern over 263 criminal cases having been booked against advocates

“If the Bar, which is the source for the Bench, becomes criminalised and corrupt, the Bench will get only bad apples. That will be the last nail in the coffin of democracy. There is no point in ruing thereafter that the judiciary has collapsed,” the Madras High Court observed on Friday after expressing deep concern over 263 criminal cases having been booked against advocates between January and April this year.

Justices P.N. Prakash and R. Hemalatha made the observations while finding lawyer R. Krishnamurthy guilty of contempt of court. The advocate had circulated an audio message on WhatsApp threatening Justice M. Dhandapani for having condemned the way in which a woman lawyer and her daughter, a law student, had behaved rudely with the police when they were questioned for roaming around in Chennai during COVID-19 lockdown.

“All judges, right from a Magistrate to judges of the Supreme Court, including us, have come from the Bar and have not descended from the heavens nor have been imported from other countries. We are, therefore, grateful to the institution called the Bar, which has catapulted us to various judicial offices. We look upon the Bar as an independent and fearless body that would protect the judiciary when the judiciary is vilified and targeted by others,” the Bench wrote.