Tribunal Lawyers

Ye hum tribunal ke vakeel*

ye ham tribunal ke vakeel hain

jo ahl-e-jubba ki tamkanat se na rob khaen,

na jaan bechen na writ likhhein,

na robe pehnhein

[We are the sinners of the tribunal bar 

who will not be cowed by the splendour of the robed ones 

will not bow, will not beg, will not wear the gown 

will not draft the writ they say we cannot file]

ye ham tribunal ke vakeel hain

ki ab file mein raat bhi ae to ye 

aankhein nahin bujhengi

ki ab jo ye corridor chhuṭ chuka hai use

dhundne ki zid na karna

[We are the sinners of the tribunal bar 

for whom the night now arrives inside the file 

and still these eyes will not go dark 

for the corridor we lost along the way

do not insist on finding it again]

We are the sinners of the tribunal bar

There is a particular species of lawyer in this country who has argued before forums that regulate the electricity your city runs on, the merger your employer just cleared, the spectrum your phone uses, the securities trade that moved a market. This lawyer carries a brief that took three to eight weeks to prepare. This lawyer is greeted at every family gathering with the same question: “Beta, High Court nahi jaate?”

These “poor” guys practice in the regulatory wilderness where the law meets the economy. You don’t know them. They have made their peace with this, mostly.

Who will not be cowed by the splendour of the robed ones

The hierarchy of the Indian bar is not complicated. The Supreme Court lawyer is God. The High Court lawyer is a senior deity. The tribunal lawyer is, well – the volunteer who helps keep the temple clean. He doesn’t get to sit with the priest though. 

This is not a new complaint. It is barely even a complaint. It is simply the weather of their professional lives. 

They are not nobody, of course. The SAT lawyer who argued a landmark insider trading matter last month will be quoted in the papers - the dyed one though. The competition lawyer whose CCI briefing shaped a significant market decision is being congratulated over LinkedIn. That TDSAT practitioner who has more telecom regulatory jurisprudence in her head than most law schools – well, you may have to google her name – but she is big in the 2G-3G circles – the not glamorous ones, of course. The APTEL silk whose tariff arguments determine electricity prices for an entire state – his scandals are not being discussed - not outside APTEL parties for sure.

They may regulate the commanding heights of the economy, but they remain at the foothills of professional esteem.