HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE S.VAIDYANATHAN BAR COUNCIL OF TAMIL NADU & PUDUCHERRY ENROLLMENT – 22.02.2023 Ego is the real enemy in this profession.  If you are patient and give up your ego, you will, not only, shine in this profession, but you will set an example, as this will give you not only peace of mind, but also a happy and contended life.

HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE S.VAIDYANATHAN

BAR COUNCIL OF TAMIL NADU & PUDUCHERRY

ENROLLMENT – 22.02.2023

 

Dear Friends on the dias and off the dias and the New Entrants to this profession,

  • Goodevening to all.
  • Today is an important day for you and now, you can proudly say that I am an Advocate and I have entered into a noble profession.
  • Though it is your duty to defend your clilents and to be loyal to them, it should always be borne in mind that you are an Officer of the Court, responsible for maintaining the decorum of the Court and to uphold the majesty of the Indian Constitution.
  • As an Advocate, you must struggle hard for safeguarding the rights of the litigants and do not yield for money at any stage.
  • Next to the field of teaching and medicine, Advocate profession is regarded as the noblest profession and you must dedicate yourself to this profession and also for the upliftment of the calibre of the Madras High Court enjoyed during and immediately after the British period.

 

  • Of course, reaching such a great height is not possible without the sactifice of your parents.
  • I remember what my father told me on the date of my enrollment. I quote:

“Your student life begins now.”

  • What you have learnt in your College in the theoritical form for the purpose of acquiring graduation should be applied practically for the cause of justice.
  • In olden days, Advocates were given great respect and were placed in the high pedestal in the society. Even many leaders of our nation, like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr.B.R.Ambedkar were lawyers, who fought for the rights of poor litigants, besides fighting for freedom of our Country and several unknown lawyers had also lost their lives in the freedom struggle.
  • As I told earlier, you, being an Officer of the Court, must ensure upholding the dignity and integrity of the Court and must avoid any attempt to exert private influence upon the Court. You should be frank and candid in all dealings with the Court as well as with clients. The obvious truth is that lawyers owe a high duty to their profession and to their fellow members of the Bar. The profession should be their pride, and to preserve its honour should be among their chief concerns.
  • There is no difference between Medicine and Legal profession. If a Doctor commits a mistake, the patient will go six feet down the earth; if a Lawyer commits a mistake, the client will go six feet above the earth (death sentence by hanging). The result is one and the same.
  • An Advocate can be construed as an Architect, who play a vital role in building, shaping and developing the entire society into a civilized one and no other profession has such a dignity.
  • May be you would have seen the speech of Hon’ble Justice K.M.Joseph, Judge, Supreme Court of India in the news, while virtually inaugurating the ‘e-Libraries’ in the State of Odisha, who has said that “an Advocate, being a perpetual student of law, could not afford to remain ignorant and should have thorough knowledge on the subject. Justice Joseph further added that “the people of the Country had the right to expect that their lives and properties were safe in the hands of lawyers.”
  • Justice Joseph also stressed upon the importance of language in the legal profession and urged the young lawyers to become familiar with the verdicts of the Constitutional Courts and remain conversant with not only law, but also with literature.
  • There are seven lamps in the field of Advocacy, namely, honesty, courage, wit, industry, eloquence, judgment and fellowship. The eighth lamp called ‘tact’ was introduced by Justice Krishna Iyer with an explanation in respect of development of skill by an Advocate to tackle people at large.
  • It is paintul to mention here that the ethics in this profession are gradually deteriorating and now-a-days, people think value of life is based on the money they earn. In this profession, you must have a lot of patience and you will learn a lot by observance.
  • Success lies when you present your case in nutshell with relevant quotes and provisions of law, so as to impress upon Judges and in that event, they will remember you forever. Do not think that everybody will like you in this profession. You may have to face lot of hurdles before you become a great Lawyer.

 

  • Before learning the genesis of law, you must learn the basic etiquette of this profession.
  • In this profession, you have to wait patiently like a Crane till your turn comes without standing on egos. Ego is the real enemy in this profession.  If you are patient and give up your ego, you will, not only, shine in this profession, but you will set an example, as this will give you not only peace of mind, but also a happy and contended life.
  • All of you must learn the trade and not the tricks of the trade. If you learn the trade, you will shine and if you learn only the tricks of the trade, success is bleak.

Once again, I wish you all success.

*****

 

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