The Hindu : Lawyers issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 01, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Lawyers issue

Sir, — The Supreme Court order banning strikes by lawyers and providing compensation for clients for lawyers' absence from courts are welcome steps. But, in practice, the idea of compensation is unlikely to work. It will be better if some binding norms are formulated to save litigants from being victimised by their lawyers. A mechanism must be evolved to check lawyers from taking admittedly false/baseless cases. It can also be done by having a publicised record of the cases won/lost by them. Lawyers should be duty-bound to attest/verify for clients abolishing the formality of getting attestation from the notary public/oath commissioners.

A lawyer-client agreement mentioning the settled fee and the mode of payment should be placed on court file. Now, the "cost" payable to the opposite party is generally pocketed by advocates. Henceforth, it should be through payees' account cheques/drafts only. The unholy nexus between some members of the bar and the bench should be checked by appointing all High Court judges outside from their home States.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
Delhi

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

A sensible move

Starved of funds

Devaluing the NHRC

Anatomy of terrorism in South Asia — I

Killing two birds with one stone

Countering Pak.'s nuclear blackmail