On Friday, senior Supreme Court advocate Dushyant Dave cried as everyone bid farewell to retiring Chief Justice of India N V Ramana. Dave stated in court that Justice Ramana “had a spine” and upheld the checks and balances between the judicial, executive, and legislative branches.
Dave said, “I speak on behalf of a vast multitude of citizens of this country. You stood up for them. You upheld their rights and the constitution. When you took over, I was sceptical of what the court had gone through. I must say, you excelled our expectations. You maintained checks and balances between the judiciary, the executive and parliament. You did with a spine.”
Advocate Dushyant Dave’s problematic antecedents
It is worth noting that advocate Dave wrote to the Supreme Court’s Secretary-General in 2020, opposing the supreme Court’s ‘preferential’ hearing of Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami. After it was discovered that Dave was one of the greatest claimants of such ‘urgent hearings,’ questions were raised about the senior Supreme Court lawyer’s honesty.
Dushyant Dave had denounced the listing of the case, calling it ‘extraordinary urgent listing,’ even as Arnab Goswami spent many days in jail in Mumbai in a case that was unilaterally re-opened by the Mumbai Police without the approval of the court.
Interestingly, Dushyant Dave was a direct beneficiary of such urgent sessions before the Supreme Court in two cases. First, in August 2018, self-proclaimed historian Romila Thapar filed a plea seeking an interim measure for some of the accused Urban Naxals in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Prashant Bhushan moved the Supreme Court in April 2020 in connection with a lawsuit brought by Gujarat police against him for infringing on Hindu religious feelings. Prashant Bhushan’s case was listed on April 30, 2020, and an urgent hearing was held the following day, on May 1. Interestingly, Dushyant Dave had asked the Supreme Court for the dismissal of the FIR filed against the activist lawyer.
In May 2020, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Secretary Ashok Arora called for the removal of senior advocate Dushyant Dave from the post of president of the organisation and also from its primary membership. An “extraordinary meeting” was also called by the SCBA secretary regarding the same. The removal of Dushyant Dave was sought in connection with the resolution passed by the association in February condemning Justice Mishra for his remarks praising Prime Minister Modi.