Abolish Senior Designation
Mathews J Nedumpara
President, NLC
28.02.2023
It is hearting to note that a large number of my esteemed brothers and sisters from the legal fraternity have joined this Group being determined to fight against the senior advocate designation system which was not in existence in this country until 1966. Unless and until this discriminatory and unjust system is not abolished, the legal system of our country has no future at all. In fact, what is at an even greater stake is the very institution of our Judiciary. Only a few people in our nation realize the great risk the country faces of its very existence as a Democracy. The Courts today are nothing but a monopoly of a few families – dynasties of senior lawyers and judges representing an elite group which has high jacked the very institution. Through PILs they have substituted the Parliament, as well as assumed the role of the Executive and Adjudicator, all at once.
Today, the affairs of this Country are decided by a few – Judges and a few ‘PILwallahs’ like Prashant Bhushan, Indira Jaisingh, Ashwini Upadhyay and their ilk. These people talk about the high principles of democracy and natural justice. However, they conveniently forget that what they do through PILs is to call upon the Court to decide upon issues concerning the public at large, entirely behind their back. They have done so with impunity because they could fool the common man for a long time simply by uttering myths like – ‘the judgments of the Supreme Court is the law of the land’, and ‘the Basic Structure of the Constitution theory’ which in reality negates the very primacy of fundamental rights. I would request one and all to kindly go through my various articles on this subject.
The solution to the most difficult problem ought to be simple enough. The elite dynasties of judges and senior lawyers have been able to hijack the institution of judiciary by creating an aura of superiority and excellence. Once this myth is destroyed like a pack of cards, the empire that they have built will fall. Our attack must therefore be on the very foundation of the Super-structure which is nothing but the Collegium System where Judges appoint themselves, and still worse, Judges designate lawyers as Senior Advocates.
Lawyers today are slaves and will continue to remain slaves forever, unless the designation of ‘Senior Advocate’ is abolished. I say so because every upcoming lawyer in his late 30s and 40s harbours an ambition to become a Senior Advocate or Judge without which there is not even an existence for him. Young lawyers therefore mortgage their independence, their self respect, and allows themselves to become subservient, sycophantic flatterers; because after all flattery is the sweetest of all voices!
So, come and join the war! No matter we succeed or fail, to fight for a righteous cause is everyone’s duty!
Mathews J Nedumpara
27.02.2023
98205 35428
