KALKA PRASAD Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are four applications in revision made by six persons, Abdul Rahiru, Iftikhar Husain, Nisar Ahmad, Rup Chand, Abdul Karim and Kalka Prasad, against one order made by the District and Sessions Judge of Meerut on the 4th of May 1917 ordering the names of these persons with others to be posted and put on a list of touts under Section 36 of the Legal Practitioners Act. Although the oases of the various applicants are not precisely similar, I propose to deal with all of them in one judgment.

(2.) The proceedings were undertaken by the District Judge at the instance of the Bar Association of Meerut, which had sat and considered the matter with great thoroughness and which supported the complaint which they made against the system of touting by a large number of persons with a considerable body of evidence.

(3.) The hearing of the case was spread over a considerable period and the learned Judge devoted great pains to the performance of a difficult but highly important task. I have to consider in the case of each applicant to this Court how far he is entitled to complain of the order made against him. Before doing so, however, it is necessary to make one or two general observations. While exercising due care to see that each case is fairly made out by the evidence called, and is established in a hearing according to law, it is desirable to emphasize the great importance of this legislation both to the general public and to the legal profession. The Judge has used language, none too strong, about the pests who perennially infest the Courts, though I doubt whether he is accurate in attributing their success to the technicalities of English Law rather than to those of Indian Legislation. But it is common knowledge that systematic touting is inseparable from a great deal of deception and imposition practised upon poor and ignorant litigants, whose interests are subordinated to those of the needy persons who prey upon their credulity. It is also inseparable from unprofessional conduct on the part of those who employ them. It is only by the vigilant efforts of bodies like the Meerut Bar Association and by strict enforcement of statutory safeguards, that the poorer members of the public and the respectable members of the profession can obtain protection.