Same bench to hear lawyers case

CHENNAI: Madras high court Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has observed, “It is said judges and lawyers are the two wheels of the chariot of justice delivery system. The chariot is meant for litigants and public at large. The unfortunate continued actions of the Madurai Bar Association in bringing this chariot to a standstill and seeking to destroy the order of wheel left no option but to repair the chariot of justice delivery system. The result has been the unpleasant task of initiation of contempt proceedings.” The contempt proceeding was earlier before a division bench of Justices S. Tamilvanan and C.T. Selvam against president P. Dharmaraj and secretary A.K. Ramasamy of Madurai Bar Association for making allegation against judges.

On September 30, the bench passed a split verdict and placed the the matter before the Chief Justice.

While Justice Tamilvanan sought constitution of a larger bench headed by the Chief Justice to decide the matter, Justice Selvam opposed it.

The Chief Justice said, “I have no doubt there is a need for an urgent closure to the issue initiated in the contempt proceedings, without taking away the importance of the other issues expressed by Justice S. Tamilvanan, which in any case are receiving attention of the First bench in various proceedings.”

Placing the matter before the same Bench, the Chief Justice said “Thus, these proceedings are liable to be concluded in the context of facts, which gave rise to these proceedings. The CJ said the matter may be placed before the division bench on November 20.