Sorry for the brief intermission for marking our Ruby Wedding Anniversary and spending time with my daughter and son who had come down, with their parivar, to do the honours. I will revert to this shortly.
Today’s WTR offer
Rowdy Lawyers?
Lawyers have been treading the path of lawlessness, as noted in “Are our Lawyers Turning Rowdies?”
Bob’s Banter
Scent of Death?
As we approach the first anniversary of the terror attack on Mumbai, Bob has his take on the subject in “November and Death..!”
For more of Bob’s banter, hit his website www.bobsbanter.com
CocktailPlaza
Also have a look at our trivia/sublime, random quotes, Indiana and recycled humour in this section – as and when we schedule them afresh – or in the archives.
The Laughter CD is on the website for you to view/ download.
The CD on laughter is loaded in the archives of this website (July 2008) for free downloading and use. Alert your friends who may be interested.
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- John B. Monteiro
Are Lawyers Turning Rowdies?
By John B. Monteiro
Once (says an Author; where, I need not say)
Two travelers found an Oyster in their way;
Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew strong,
While Scale in hand Dame Justice passed along.
Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws.
Explained the matter, and would win the cause,
Dame Justice weighing long the doubtful Right,
Takes, opens, swallows it, before their sight.
The cause of strife removed so rarely well,
“There take” (says Justice), “take ye each a shell.”
We thrive at Westminister on Fools like you:
’Twas a fat oyster – live in peace – Adieu.
- Alexander Pope, English poet (1688-1744).
The combination of lawyers and judges was suspect down the centuries. Five centuries ago, Robert Burton, English writer (1576-1640) had said: “Our wrangling lawyers…are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients’ causes hereafter, some of them in hell.” Lawyers today resort to more than wrangling – they have turned bullies and rowdies, if some of their recent actions are pointers to their emerging behaviour. But before we come to their recent rowdism, let us visit William Shakespeare, English dramatic poet (1564-1616):
O Judgment! thou are fled to brutish beasts
And men have lost their reason.
On the brutish behaviour of lawyers who are supposed to uphold the law, here is what Gayathri Nivas says , writing in Deccan Herald (15-11-09): The latest in the line of unsavoury incidents involving lawyers, the judiciary and the police bucking the legal system, is the Advocates Association, Bangalore disrupting judicial proceedings at the Karnataka High Court and “locking up” two judges on November 9 to force their demand that Chief Justice PD Dinakaran must abstain from hearing cases until he is cleared of land-grabbing charges against him. This incident was closely followed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice KG Balakrishnan, being booed for introducing a new security system for the Supreme Court that restricts entry to those having digital identity cards, called proximity cards. The Supreme Court Bar Association and the Bar Council of Delhi are demanding relaxation of the strict rule and permitting the advocates to enter the court complex with their ID-cards issued by these bodies.
In February 2009, the burning down of a police station on the Madras High Court premises by a group of lawyers marked a dangerous trend. The High Court witnessed pitched battles between the police and the lawyers, who were protesting the arrest of advocates involved in an attack on Janata Party President Subramanya Swamy inside the court hall of Madras High Court in full view of two judges.
Let us have a brief look at the two cases. The case of the Karnataka Chief Justice is being investigated by CJI. It is one of the chief tenets of law that no one can be considered guilty until he is proved to be so by due process of law. Lawyers earn their bread because of this tenet even by defending the indefensible, often by subverting and manipulating witnesses, apart from legal loopholes. In the Madras High Court case, arresting lawyers cannot be a ground for violence because lawyers are not above law.
Machiavalli, Italian statesman (1469-1525) had foreseen such a development when he said: “For as laws are necessary that good manners may be preserved, so there is need of good manners that laws may be maintained.” I think Shakespeare had today’s lawyers also in mind when he said: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”. We hope our lawyers behave themselves and not provoke such violent thoughts!
The subject is open to many views. What are yours? Over to you.
