Litigants in Tamil Nadu are courting the DIY technique with the advocates’ protest against new disciplinary rules entering its second month.

While a few clients have stepped out of the public gallery and are conducting their cases, a majority of them are taking help from the legal briefs prepared by their advocates.

Advocates in the state have been on a boycott demanding a total recall of amendments to High Court Rules under Section 34 (1) of the Advocates Act – which have come into being in addition to existing provisions facilitating disciplinary proceedings.

The new rules empower the high court and the district judges to debar lawyers, temporarily and permanently, for misconduct or offences such as collecting money in the name of judges, browbeating or abusing judges, tampering with court records, coming to courts drunk and taking out rallies or holding sit-in protests on court premises.

While a boycott by doctors, bus or autorickshaw drivers can bring life to a standstill, courts can go about their business with clients tackling a barrage of cases remotely controlled by their advocates.

S Murugesan, a civil contractor from Darapuram, Tirupur, is one of the few do-it-yourself defendants. He leafed through law books for three years to conduct legal proceedings at the Coimbatore Sub Court seeking relief in a criminal case, which he says, “was filed against him in 2010 in an act of vengeance by the local police”.

With the judgement imminent in a case in which he was alleged to have vandalized political posters pasted on walls, Murugesan is ready to go to even the Supreme Court.

Though he says he will take professional help at that level, preparing the case at the preliminary stage is key to winning a case.

“I read the Evidence Act, Criminal Procedure Court and the Indian Penal Code for three years and now waiting for a positive judgement.”

It’s possible to take what you need from the law books and conduct your own case as we are entitled to that right, says Nanjil K Krishnan, founder of an NGO promoting legal awareness anti-corruption activities.

“India has 3,300 laws and one crore and 25 lakhs government orders. Our organisation holds training camps and workshops to generate awareness about laws that are needed for the day to day running of life. We also assist and guide aggrieved parties in specific cases.”

“People are in the dark about the law, they think it’s beyond their grasp and that it belongs to a particular fraternity. But once their ignorance is dispelled they will gain more confidence, and our work is to just achieve this.”

But what will be the rate of success for these ‘amateur’ counsels and the speed at which these cases can reach a closure in a court that’s already creaking under the burden of pendency, are hard to determine.

This is just an interim arrangement, so that our clients do not suffer, say advocates.

“The boycott is well into its second month, so technically what we have missed is about two hearings or adjournments,” says advocate Loganathan, secretary, Coimbatore Bar Association.

“With our guidance, our clients are presenting their cases in front of the judge,” he said.

“But we hear they are being misguided, and cases being dismissed claiming lack of prima facie status.”

“We see as much as possible they are not affected by any delay.”

He also said about 205 bar associations of mofussil courts comprising 65,000 advocates across the state have formed a joint action committee to seek intervention of the Chief Justice of India to look into the hagemonic rules against advocates in Tamil Nadu in the name of discipline.

“The Chief Justice has agreed to meet us on Thursday,” he said.

Advocate Udaya Menon of Udaya P.S. Menon and Assosiates in Coimbatore, said, “We provide technical assistance and help with the paperwork for our clients so that they don’t suffer.”

“It simply amounts to tutoring and supporting them.”

Advocate Dhakshayini Venkatesh, member of the Madras Bar Association, said litigants who are in dire need of a legal assistance have been representing their cases with the help of their counsels.

She also said: “The scattered protests will culminate in a major showdown tomorrow at the High Court, where the advocates will demand the amendments be taken back.”

This is where the advocates will make a statement over the issue that has been raging for more than a month, now, she said.

S Mohanavadivelan, advocate Madras High Court says, “Some of the clients are successfully representing their cases with our support, but the permanent solution lies in advocates stepping back into court and running the show.”

“The recently framed rules by the Madras High Court in the name of disciplining the advocates are the fallout of the lack of leadership and vision among the advocates fraternity.

“Besides the contempt of courts provisions in law, already existing, the judiciary has made it sure that it is well armed to take on the advocates with further amendments to High Court Rules under Section 34 (1) of the Advocates Act. Where a rap on the knuckles is more than enough, the High Court, Madras has been using ballistic missiles in the name of disciplining the advocates in Chennai. It’s not that the advocates alone are to be disciplined but the entire judiciary needs a revamp for which the co-operation between the Bench and the Bar is absolutely necessary.

As of now the advocates here in Chennai are made the scapegoat.”