Law 1. Behind every successful criminal is a successful criminal lawyer
Law 2. Behind every successful criminal lawyer is at least one 'uncle' judge.
Uncle judge and bench hunting may or may not be features peculiar to the Indian judicial system. The Bar Council of India however bars any advocate from appearing before a judge who is his/her relation. But there is nothing preventing the relation of a judge from appearing before a 'brother' judge whose relation can appear before him/her. To illustrate, if AS is the advocate son of judge A and BS is the advocate son of judge B, AS can appear before B and BS can appear before A and no one can be wiser or question as to how AS and BS continue to get favourable orders whenever they appear before B and A respectively! This in essence is the phenomenon of 'uncle' judges and there cannot be father/mother/brother/sister judges. To understand how 'uncle' judges contribute to corruption and crime look at former Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan's history and how his family members raked in the moolah when he was a judge of the high courts/ apex court. Bench hunting involves not only advocates manipulating to get their cases listed before uncle judges, it can also extend to advocates managing to get their case listed before particular judges whose whims and fancies are well known in those circles.
"It is true that the solution suggested is unusual, but unusual situations which pervert the judicial system require unusual and unorthodox remedies."-Eminent jurist H.M.Seervai in his book, Constitutional Law of India
This was the very quote that Binod Kumar Roy, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, used to justify his five-page administrative directive restricting relatives of certain judges from appearing before them. The Bar Council rule is clear that lawyers can't appear before their own kin. Roy's directive identified a dozen judges whose relatives are advocates (see All in the Family) and forbade them from appearing before any of these 12. This ensured that a judge cannot help even a fellow judge's kin.
Within a month of this directive, the SC collegium recommended his transfer to the Patna High Court.
- http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20041108&fname=Judges+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=1
Law 2. Behind every successful criminal lawyer is at least one 'uncle' judge.
Uncle judge and bench hunting may or may not be features peculiar to the Indian judicial system. The Bar Council of India however bars any advocate from appearing before a judge who is his/her relation. But there is nothing preventing the relation of a judge from appearing before a 'brother' judge whose relation can appear before him/her. To illustrate, if AS is the advocate son of judge A and BS is the advocate son of judge B, AS can appear before B and BS can appear before A and no one can be wiser or question as to how AS and BS continue to get favourable orders whenever they appear before B and A respectively! This in essence is the phenomenon of 'uncle' judges and there cannot be father/mother/brother/sister judges. To understand how 'uncle' judges contribute to corruption and crime look at former Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan's history and how his family members raked in the moolah when he was a judge of the high courts/ apex court. Bench hunting involves not only advocates manipulating to get their cases listed before uncle judges, it can also extend to advocates managing to get their case listed before particular judges whose whims and fancies are well known in those circles.
"It is true that the solution suggested is unusual, but unusual situations which pervert the judicial system require unusual and unorthodox remedies."-Eminent jurist H.M.Seervai in his book, Constitutional Law of India
This was the very quote that Binod Kumar Roy, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, used to justify his five-page administrative directive restricting relatives of certain judges from appearing before them. The Bar Council rule is clear that lawyers can't appear before their own kin. Roy's directive identified a dozen judges whose relatives are advocates (see All in the Family) and forbade them from appearing before any of these 12. This ensured that a judge cannot help even a fellow judge's kin.
Within a month of this directive, the SC collegium recommended his transfer to the Patna High Court.
- http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20041108&fname=Judges+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=1
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