The other grievance of Mr. Majithia is that the National
Commission in its Cause List specifically issued a notice that no
proxy counsel shall be allowed to make submissions. According
to him, such a direction is bad in law and is without any
jurisdiction. According to him, such direction is also arbitrary
and illegal as it prevents a qualified lawyer enrolled on the rolls
of a State Bar Council from presenting his case before the
National Commission. He further submitted that it is also in
violation of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, being the
fundamental right to practice. He further stated that under
Section 30 of the Advocates Act, 1961, an Advocate, after
having been enrolled, has a right to appear before the courts or
any other authority and, therefore, it is curtailment of the right
of an Advocate. We find that under the Advocates Act, there is
no terminology which defines “proxy counsel”. We have found
in a very recent decision of this Court in S.L.P. (Criminal)
No.9967 of 2011 (Sanjay Kumar v. The State of Bihar & Anr.), a
three-Judge Bench of this Court in its order dated January 28,
2014 has held as follows :
“In such a chaotic situation, any
“Arzi”, “Farzi”, half-baked lawyer under the label of
“proxy counsel”, a phrase not traceable under the
Advocates Act, 1961 or under the Supreme Court Rules,
1966 etc., cannot be allowed to abuse and misuse the
process of the court under a false impression that he
has a right to waste public time without any authority
to appear in the court, either from the litigant or from
the AOR, as in the instant case. ....”
Therefore, we do not find any substance in the submission of
Mr. Majithia with regard to “proxy counsel”. We also do not find
that the decisions cited by Mr. Majithia before us can extend any
help in the facts and circumstances of this case.
Reportable
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO.4891 OF 2014
(Arising out of Special Leave Petition (Civil) No.14965 of 2013)
Surendra Mohan Arora Vs HDFC Bank Ltd. and Others
Dated;April 25, 2014.
Pinaki Chandra Ghose, J.
