“I am a person in my own right,” senior advocate Indira Jaising took strong exception to a remark made by Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal that she is the wife of senior advocate Anand Grover.
Mr. Venugopal later got up to tell a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha that he considered Ms. Jaising as a “very, very good lawyer”. Ms. Jaising was the first woman to be appointed Additional Solicitor General of India.
The exchange happened on Thursday towards the end of a rather volatile hearing in the contempt petitions filed against advocate Prashant Bhushan by Mr. Venugopal and the government for his tweets on February 1. The court had decided to examine the “larger issue” of whether curbs could be imposed on lawyers and litigants from expressing their views in the media on pending cases in court.
Mr. Grover informed the court that he was representing Ms. Jaising as her lawyer and she wanted to intervene on the issue as a “writer and lawyer”.
But Justice Mishra, who appeared to not have understood Mr. Grover the first time, asked him again whom he was appearing for. When Mr. Grover said it was “Ms. Jaising”. Justice Mishra asked “Not Indira Jaising?”
“Yes, Ms. Indira Jaising. It is the same name only,” Mr. Grover replied.
At this point, Mr. Venugopal, who was sitting on the other side, intervened to say “you should say your wife”.
An annoyed Ms. Jaising came forward to ask Mr. Venugopal to withdraw his remark.
“Mr. Attorney, please withdraw your statement. I am a person in my own right. We are not to be identified as somebody’s spouse, wife or husband. Hence we choose not to change our surnames… Mr. Attorney, please see me as a lawyer. It is my choice who should represent me in court,” Ms. Jaising lashed out.
She later gracefully apologised in court to Mr. Venugopal, as one professional to another, for raising her voice at him. Mr. Venugopal, in turn, almost immediately rose to convey to the court his respect for Ms. Jaising’s skills as an advocate.
