Side Effects Of Working From Home.

Working from home is not turning out as good as it supposed to be.

Working from home is turning out not as appealing as it was supposed to be. Teachers have been complaining of students not turning on their cameras but now the unprofessional behavior has gone to another level when a senior advocate has been seen smoking on the screen during an online hearing at the Supreme court. Advocate Rajeev Dhavan was seen smoking during the hearing and later the Gujarat high court imposed a penalty of 10,000 rupees on him. This type of unprofessional and unethical behavior by professional advocates is not acceptable.

The careless act doesn’t stop there; recently an advocate appeared shirtless at an online meeting. During the hearing of Sudarshan TV case over video conference an advocate appeared shirtless for a few seconds, on Monday. However, he immediately logged out after Justice CY Chandrachud asked him to reveal his identity. Justice Indu Malhotra who was also part of the bench described the incident as unpardonable. The incident was later mentioned to the senior law officer Tushar Mehta by the government.

This wasn’t the only time when an advocate appeared in the meeting in an inappropriate appearance, a few times back an advocate appeared in a vest, making the judge angry. Later the judge adjourned the online bail hearing mentioning that it is important to appear in a prescribed dress before the court. He said, “this court has already observed that during this pandemic where court functioning is being done through video conferencing, lawyers must appear in proper uniform... Keeping in view that the petitioner’s counsel was not in proper uniform, the case is adjourned.”

Court hearings, including that of supreme court are happening through video conferencing, at this time of pandemic the lawyers are expected to maintain the decorum of the court, with some lawyers including some seniors lawyers are failing to fulfill and it is as disappointing as disrespectful it is for the judges.