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After the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of Covid related cases (without issuing a stay on the ongoing proceedings before High Courts), several senior advocates released public statements, stating that the move by the Supreme Court was "retrograde", "unjustified" and "uncalled" for. 

Today, during the hearing, Justice L.N Rao expressed anguish at statements which have been rolled out yesterday by various members of the bar regarding the Supreme Court taking up the case concerning covid crisis suo motu. In this light, he said,

"Even before the order was passed, motives were imputed that we were going to stop the high court. Some senior advocates are destroying the institution. Even without reading the order & even before we passed the order, you said that we are stopping the High Courts from proceeding with the case," said justice Rao to Senior Advocates Dushyant Dave & Vikas Singh 

Lawbeat reached out to Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani for his views on the issue.

"This was an attempt to influence the Supreme court and hat should not have been done. Many lawyers have given their personal opinion of what should the supreme court do. That is for an argument in court and that is not for the media.This brings the judiciary to disrepute. They make all sorts of aspersions against supreme court, either explicit or implied. They may not agree with the supreme court and that is their right but there is a way of expressing oneself. I am not saying that judges that judges are paragons of rectitude. I am not saying they are infallible. But we have a system here which is not perfect," he said.

Today, the Supreme Court continued hearing the case whilst allowing Senior Advocate Harish Salve, recusal from acting as amicus in the case. Salve had sought his recusal on account of allegations that he was simply appointed as amicus due to his closeness with CJI SA Bobde.

It is pertinent to note that the appointment of Mr. Salve was heavily criticised by Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, whereby he stated that there was no reason as to why Mr. Salve should be appointed by by Chief Justice Bobde as amicus curiae. 

Speaking on the issue, Jethmalani said,

"First of all I think lawyers are getting too personal with each other. The "Dave-Salve" clash was particularly unpleasant which I think Dave needs to get over. This is not the first time he has attacked Salve like this. I am not saying that his view was right or wrong but this personal attack is unwarranted and this is becoming a feature of a particular section of the bar."

Expressing his views on the Supreme Court taking suo motu cognisance of the Covid issue, in light of the High Courts taking stock of the same in their respective jurisdictions, Mr. Jethmalani stated,

"The supreme court is trying to frame its own mind about issues of public importance and covid is an issue of paramount public importance. I am not saying that the supreme court should transfer all matters before itself, that is for the Supreme Court to decide after hearing  all the parties. But all the parties cannot be heard before the media even before they are heard by the court."

He added that even though he has Dave's point of view which stipulated that they are "protecting the institution", he doesn't necessarily agree.

"You see you are making a prescriptive judgment about the supreme court today - you are putting a value judgment on what they are doing is wrong. There are many judgments in the supreme court which have gone against me and against which i have a resentment for but i don't attack the institution - the institution is supposed to serve the country. Sometimes the courts do a very good job and sometimes they don’t. You don’t ascribe motives to them. That kind of thing should not be done or to say that they are politically compromised - which is what the latest kind of trends are."