Sunday 12 June 2016

Black colour coats for lawyers


When I was a lawyer in the Allahabad High Court, I was once sitting in the bar library with some senior lawyers.

 This was perhaps in  the month of April, when the weather begins to get hot in North India.

I suggested to the senior lawyers that a resolution should be passed by the High Court Bar Association demanding amendment to the High Court rules by permitting lawyers to appear in Court dressed in coats of some light colour, instead of black, at least from mid April till the reopening of the Court after the summer vacations.

 I said that we in India had blindly copied the dress of English lawyers, not realizing that black colour coats were suited to the climatic conditions of a cold country like England, but not to a hot country like India.

The reaction of the senior lawyers was furious, as if I had committed some blasphemy. They all unanimously  condemned my suggestion. One of them said " I will fight tooth and nail if you propose this ". So I had to drop my suggestion.

 It is evident that the legal profession is extremely conservative, and does not like, and will not permit, any change.

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