DATTAJIRAO BALWANTRAO MANE Vs. NANI PALKHIVALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Learned Advocate Mr. Niteen Pradhan for the petitioner submits that in view of the first respondent Nani Palkhivalas letter to the learned Advocate Mr. S.B. Jaisinghani---and which letter is now part of the record of these proceedings---the question of contempt will not arise. But---and we now quote the very words of the learned Advocate---the petitioner desires to highlight the conduct of Advocates and their growing tendency to hurl abuses on Judges and under criticism of courts.

(2.) Now, what the petitioner, who is also himself a practising member of the Bar, should do or desires is not for us to advise. Living, as we all are, in a free democracy ...the one visible symbol thereof, significantly, is this very petition and its subject-speech but the vital symbol whereof is our independent judiciary...citizens are free to choose and charter out their course of action subject, of course, to the basic norms enjoined upon us all by the rule of law end the Constitution. But it is well to remember that as in the case of a nation, so in the case of a profession or an institution, it reveals itself---

(3.) So far as the instant proceedings are concerned, suffice it to state and conclude that there is no contempt. This petition is hence dismissed. Petition dismissed.