CHENNAI: The first bench of Madras High Court has taken to task an elderly advocate, having considerable experience in the Bar, for challenging the helmet rule again and again, using objectionable words such as ‘judicial over reach’, ‘unwanted judicial activism’ and ‘katta panchayat’ (Kangaroo court) and dubbing the earlier orders as ‘reflection of anger’ and ‘irksome’.
“We are thus unequivocally of the view that the petitioner R Muthukrishnan is deliberately trying to scandalise the court and taking advantage of his age, to get away from the consequences of the misadventure. Despite this, we do think it worth to go into this issue further, but we do believe that such conduct by lawyers as officers of the court, is completely unbecoming of their profession and unacceptable as norm of conduct,” the bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice Sathyanarayana said on December 22.
The bench further said instead of taking proceedings for contempt, it was of the view that it should refer the matter to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, with a copy to Bar Council of India in New Delhi, to examine the conduct of Muthukrishnan as to whether he should continue on the rolls as a member of the Bar or it ought to be cancelled or suspended.
It also imposed another `10,000 towards cost on Muthukrishnan to be deposited with the TN Mediation and Conciliation Centre within 15 days. By an order on November 3 last, the bench had imposed a cost of `10,000 for raking up the same issue.