Gujarat High Court Deprecates Bar President's Conduct While Seeking Adjournment In 2011 PIL, Says He Tried To 'Misuse His Position'

The Gujarat High Court on Friday (January 17) deprecated the conduct of President of the High Court Advocates' Association Brijesh Trivedi in seeking an adjournment in a 2011 PIL, observing that manner in which he acted indicated that he was trying to misuse his position as the elected President of the Bar for "creating his nuisance value in the Court".

A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi in its order noted that the matter had been pending since 2011 and had been adjourned earlier as well. 

It said, "Today, when the matter was taken up, taking note of the long pendency, we have expressed our opinion at the beginning that we are not inclined to postpone the hearing in the matter. Mr. Brijesh Trivedi, learned advocate, who happens to be the elected President of the Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association, however, insisted to postpone the hearing in the matter by reading and re-reading the order of the Apex Court dated 29.04.2013 in Civil Appeal No. 3880 of 2013 making submissions that with the passing of the order dated 29.04.2013, the proceedings in the public interest litigation can not be continued".

The order notes that when the court declined this prayer in view of repeated earlier adjournments and also because the apex court's order did not pose an impediment in proceeding with the matter on merit, Trivedi started "making irrelevant submissions" adding that if the court wanted to hear the matter on merits, two week adjournment be granted as he wasn't available "because of his personal commitment to attend a wedding". 

The order notes that Trivedi–who is one of the three counsels appearing for the petitioner–made statements on the working of the court on the administrative and judicial side and did not let the Court to proceed on the merits of the case.

When Trivedi sought time to bring on record certain papers and the court questioned him why the papers had not been brought on record earlier, the order notes, that "he started making allegations against the functioning of the Court". The order states that Trivedi "even commanded the Court to recuse" from hearing the matter by agitating that "it was the Court which was not permitting him to make his arguments".

The court warned Trivedi not to do so but after making "various irrelevant statements and allegations against the Court", Trivedi left the Dias and the Court in an "inappropriate manner", without seeking the court's permission while hearing was going on, the order states. 

"The manner in which Mr. Trivedi has acted, as a whole, gave a clear indication that he was trying to misuse his position as the elected President of the Bar for creating his nuisance value in the Court. This conduct of Mr. Trivedi, who is an elected President of the Bar, is nothing but an effort to browbeat the Court in order to seek adjournment, and creating undue pressure by making reckless allegations, when the Court was only insisting for arguments on merits of the case. We deprecate this conduct of the Bar President being unethical. The conduct demonstrated by Mr.Brijesh Trivedi shows his utter disrespect towards the institution and his attitude which is not only unworthy of becoming an elected President of the Advocates' Association but also unbecoming of an Advocate of the highest Court of the State," the order notes. 

The court continued to hear the matter and was informed by the respondent's counsel that an application for direction to one of the respondents had been filed in the matter. The court noted that this application as well as another application for amendment were showing as "under objections" and were not placed on record. The court thereafter posted the matter on January 24 requiring the Office to place both the applications on record. 

It further clarified that since the matter is "old" it is not inclined to grant further adjournment in the case. 

Case title: SHARIFBHAI HASAMBHAI SAKARYANI v/s  STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS.

Click Here To Read/Download Order