SC concerned at lawyers’ obsession with money

The Supreme Court is concerned with the steep fall in the “nation’s character,” unhappy as it is with some of the country’s top lawyers’ obsession with money. “In Patna, an additional sessions judge had to be evicted after water and power supply to his bungalow was disconnected. It is unfortunate that people holding such high positions are involved in unauthorised occupation,” a bench of justices BN Agrawal and GS Singhvi observed while hearing a PIL about unlawful possession of government accommodation by bureaucrats, ministers and judges.

“Thank God, it has not happened with Supreme Court judges,” the judges said.
Lawyer Ranjit Kumar, who is assisting the court, suggested withholding of pension benefits to unauthorised occupants. But the apex court doesn’t ascribe to his request for an order depriving VIPs of pension benefits until they produce a no-objection certificate from the estate office. “Merely framing rules is not sufficient. Their implementation must be done,” the judges said.

Disgusted at the unchecked illegal occupation of bungalows, the judges said, “Whenever, we pass orders, they are not complied with. In many cases, we had to hammer to see that they are implemented. There has to be a moral authority to function.”

“Some top lawyers in the Supreme Court are earning good money but they do not want to become judges,” the bench said. “We want a strong democracy and an independent judiciary. But some of the SC advocates want to mint money,” the court said.