Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on July 25 sharply criticised senior advocates in the Karnataka political crisis case, saying they did not think twice before waking up the Supreme Court at midnight for an urgent hearing, but chose not to appear when the court, in turn, sought their presence in the long-drawn, roller-coaster dispute which finally saw the fall of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government led by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
The Chief Justice’s caustic remarks about the conduct of the senior advocates was triggered by what happened in the court on July 24. A day after the holding of the long-awaited trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly on July 23, a plea was made by an advocate for permission to withdraw the case. The case pertained to an application made by two independent MLAs last week for conduct of the trust vote without delay. The counsel, who appeared for the legislators, submitted before the CJI Bench that their application had become infructuous as the vote had already been held.
However, the CJI asked why none of the senior advocates such as Mukul Rohatgi or A.M. Singhvi, who had been leading the arguments in the case all along, chose not to come and seek the court’s permission to withdraw. After all, the Bench said, the court had patiently heard them and passed interim orders over the past several weeks in the case. The court had then refused to pass orders on July 24.