A pleader owes not only a duty to his client, but has also a duty towards the Court
A pleader owes not only a duty to his client, but has also a duty towards the Court of which he is an officer; and therefore there are certain limits which he must be careful to observe in framing the contents of such a notice. This is very much what has been already and by the late Chief Justice in his judgment in that ease. For he refers to the point of a notice under Section 80 and says (p. 267):
But whatever his instructions were, it would have been his duty as a pleader to send that notice strictly in accordance with the terms of that section.
But this notice goes beyond that and does not keep within the proper limits of restraint, which a pleader, with his superior knowledge and experience, should observe in addressing a notice to a judicial officer. As I have already stated, he may quite legitimately say that the officer has done acts, which his client submits are in excess of his powers, and so on; but he should be careful to express that in a form which will not be unduly insulting or opprobrious to the officer, who has to receive the notice. It is not a case of a mere letter that Mr. Coyajee says could be consigned to a, waste paper basket, for it threatens litigation, unless the officer complies with the demand made in it, and it is a necessary preliminary to a suit, If proceedings are taken, it has to be put is evidence, and the officer, if he wants Government to defend the suit, will have to submit the notice with the other papers in the case. Though it is not on the same footing as an article in a newspaper, there is a certain amount of publicity involved in such Government Pleader a notice.
Bombay High Court
The Government Pleader vs L.B. Bhopatkar on 16 March, 1928
Equivalent citations: (1928) 30 BOMLR 934, 113 Ind Cas 519
