UNCLE JUDGES SYNDROME

BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA RULES

Rules made by the Bar Council of India in exercise of 
its rule making powers under the Advocates Act, 1961

PART - VI

RULES GOVERNING ADVOCATES

CHAPTER - II

Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette

(Rules under Section 49 (1) (c) of the Act read with the Proviso thereto)

Rule: “6. An advocate shall not enter appearance, act, plead or practise in any way before a court, Tribunal or Authority mentioned in Section 30 of the Act, if the sole or any member thereof is related to the advocate as father, grandfather, son, grand-son, uncle, brother, nephew, first cousin, husband, wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, brother-in-law daughter-in-law or sister-in-law.

^*For the purposes of this rule, Court shall mean a Court, Bench or Tribunal in which above mentioned relation of the Advocate is a Judge, Member or the Presiding Officer.”

Section 30 of the ADVOCATES ACT, 1961 is as follows:

“30. Right of advocates to practise.—Subject to provisions of this Act, every advocate whose name is entered in the State roll shall be entitled as of right to practise throughout the territories to which this Act extends,—

(i)                 in all courts including the Supreme Court;

(ii)              before any tribunal or person legally authorised to take evidence;

(iii)           and  before any other authority or person before whom such advocate is by or under any law for the time being in force entitled to practise”

The definition and explanation are clear in the given terms, which does not require any further elaboration. Whereas the said rule is blatantly violated in all courts, right from the Supreme Court of India to the lower courts, all over India, to which the legal fraternity is turning a blind eye, causing erosion of justice, equity and good consciousness.  The claim that the judges deliver the judgments in accordance with the merits, and not in accordance with the relation with the counsel appeared, is an affront to the reason. If a judge is biased, it's equivalent to pre-empting the justice. It is not only justice be done, but shall be seen to be done. The judiciary is a sacrosanct institution, which belongs to the nation, not to certain families. The nation demands justice, not justifications.

- ADV.A.C.PHILIP