Shankar Lal Sharma vs Rajesh Koolwal 2025 INSC 200 - Advocates - Duty To Court & Litigants

Advocates - Role of advocates in taking up the responsibility of rendering assistance to both the court as well as the litigant, particularly those with limited means, and to collectively assist in ensuring that the litigant before a court has an assurance of having secured justice at the hands of the courts and particularly from the Apex Court -The original and core values attached to the legal profession - To lend their noble services to an aggrieved litigant before the Court-not by acting as soldiers on behalf of their clients, but by merely being the bridges of communication and peace between the stakeholders in litigation, i.e., the petitioner(s) and the respondent(s) in a case and by rendering assistance to the bench, so that dispensation of justice in a court of law does not eventually become a zero-sum game- Young advocates joining the bar, must volunteer to assist the litigants who cannot engage the services of a counsel due to lack of means or awareness whenever an opportunity presents itself- The duty to provide ease of access to justice rests upon every member of the legal profession and the requisite message needs to be disseminated from the portals and corridors of this Court in the first instance in both letter and spirit. The enduring service of the learned amicus curiae in the present case is a poignant step in that direction.