Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Friday stated that he was thinking of ordering a CBI probe into the backgrounds of "thousands" of Delhi's lawyers, questioning whether their degrees were fake or real.
He explained that he felt this after seeing some of the lawyers' comments on social media, and criticised the Bar Council of India for not being able to do anything about the situation, as it was "absolutely in collusion" with them.
"I want the CBI to verify the LLB degrees of most of the Delhi people ... the kind of Facebook and things (social media posts) they are putting ... do they think we are not watching? BCI will not do anything ... thousands of them are fraudulent people who are wearing black robes," the CJI said, as per a Live Law report.
The CJI continued irately, rebuking those who "attacked the system" as "parasites of society".
Calling them "cockroaches" who entered media, influencers and activists, he also questioned if the "fraudulent" lawyers of Delhi wanted to join them by filing contempt petitions.
This comes as a bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had been hearing an application filed by an advocate against the Delhi High Court over senior designations.
The lawyer, who had moved the apex court for the third time on Friday, had claimed that the Delhi High Court had failed to comply with the Supreme Court's earlier direction to reconsider deferred/rejected applications for senior designations expeditiously.
The bench then observed that senior designations were to be earned and not fought for with frivolous petitions, adding that the petitioner did not deserve one due to his professional conduct.
This led the lawyer to apologise profusely, and to request that his contempt plea be withdrawn, to which the court ultimately agreed and dismissed it.
