A recent conflagration between Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association (GHCAA) President Brijesh J. Trivedi has led to a divided bar calling for an Extra Ordinary Meeting to deliberate on the spat.

On January 17, 2025, there was a heated exchange of words where a visibly irate Chief Justice Agarwal accused Trivedi of attempting to browbeat the Court, and Trivedi fired back, branding her an "overspeaking judge" who never allows lawyers to complete arguments. 

The breaking point of the spat happened when Trivedi expressed his frustration at the Chief Justice's courtroom demeanor, alleging that she ignored his arguments and looked away during his submissions. "Your ladyship is looking somewhere at the sky, this has never happened in this Hon'ble Court in 65 years. My request is to keep it after two weeks," he stated.

Consequently, Mr Trivedi left the court while the Chief Justice was objecting to his conduct. Trivedi also accused the Chief Justice of being an "overspeaking judge" (alluding to a quote by Lord Francis Bacon) whom every lawyer had been "tolerating."

A dismayed Court, later issued an order condemning Trivedi's conduct. The order recorded, "The conduct demonstrated by Mr. Brijesh Trivedi shows his utter disrespect towards the institution and his attitude which is not only unworthy of becoming an elected President of the Advocates’ Association but also unbecoming of an Advocate of the highest Court of the State,"

Subsequently, on January 20, 2025, Gujarat Advocate General (AG) Kamal Trivedi, along with a group of senior advocates, sought to defuse the situation by approaching the Chief Justice-led bench and said that the incident should never have happened and both lawyers and judges must work to ensure that judicial institution is not maligned.

However, this approach has been criticized by the members of the GHCAA, and these members are of the opinion that the AG and the Senior advocates who addressed the Chief Justice on January 20, 2025, did so without consulting the members of the Bar to ascertain the collective position of the GHCAA.

Expressing regret, the members of the GHCAA have now urged its Managing Committee to call for an Extraordinary General Body Meeting (EGM) to discuss the incident.

Source: B&B