Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan on Thursday wrote to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and withdrew his decision to retire from court practice, Live Law reported.
Dhavan wrote that he would continue to fulfill his obligations in several pending cases such as the Babri Masjid dispute. Besides, he said, several ex-justices of the court and a sitting judge, along with many senior and other colleagues had requested him to withdraw his statement about retirement.
“I owe and have learnt a lot from the Supreme Court and judicial system, including my colleagues, and have not repaid my debt,” he wrote.
“There are some things fundamentally wrong with the court and its functioning,” Dhavan wrote. “But I will never abandon my faith in the rule of law for which the entire judiciary including the legal community are custodians for the people.”
On December 11, Dhavan had said that he was giving up court practice after a “humiliating end” to the legal battle between the Centre and the Delhi government over the Capital’s administrative powers.
Dhavan, one of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s counsels, was involved in heated exchanges with Misra on the last day of the hearings. On December 6, Dhavan wanted to make oral submissions, which Misra allowed but asked him to not repeat the points made by lead counsel Gopal Subramanium.
Misra then objected to a submission he thought Dhavan had made earlier and snapped at the senior advocate. “You go on shouting,” the chief justice said. “You are always like that. We will give our judgment.”
Dhavan had reportedly said that he felt that his propositions were not being heard, and that the whole court was laughing at him.
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