The Bombay High Court, presided over by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor, recently addressed a situation where a senior lawyer, Jayesh Patel, blamed his junior for the dismissal of a case due to non-appearance. The court, while expressing its displeasure over the senior lawyer’s actions, accepted Patel’s apology and, in a unique directive, asked him to gift his junior a copy of ‘The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation’ by Granville Austin as a gesture of goodwill.
The backdrop of the incident involves an interim application filed by Patel, seeking the restoration of an appeal related to Memon Co-operative Bank, which had been dismissed due to the non-appearance of his client. In his application, Patel attributed the oversight to his junior lawyer, claiming that he was not informed about the case by the junior.
However, the court took note of the fact that the junior lawyer had been enrolled as an advocate for a mere two months prior to the date of the appeal’s dismissal. The bench expressed its concern over Patel’s decision to place the blame on the junior lawyer, especially given the junior’s brief tenure in the profession. The court was further dismayed that the junior was compelled to file an affidavit, taking responsibility for the oversight.
The bench remarked,
“We find it most unfortunate that the appellant’s advocate-on-record has sought to lay the blame for non-appearance at the hands of a junior advocate. What is worse still is that the said junior advocate has been made to file an affidavit stating that the inadvertence was at her end,”
as documented in the court’s 6-page order.
This incident underscores the importance of senior professionals taking responsibility for their actions and highlights the court’s commitment to ensuring fairness and justice in the legal profession.
