Silence is a crime when there is a duty to speak, difficult to forgive: Justice M S Sonak to lawyers

“The bar is, and has always been, the judge of the judges, not in a spirit of hostility or in the sense of being judgemental, but in a spirit of guardianship,” said Justice Sonak in his address, adding that the lawyers ought to be the “moral, the spiritual and the intellectual mentor of the bench.”

“As judges, we do not deserve praise for doing what we ought to do. Just as Oliver Wendell Holmes once bemoaned, that the trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than be saved by criticism. Praising judges for their mythical excellence is fine, we all like to hear that. But correcting the judge if he strays from the path of rectitude is infinitely better and critically crucial,” said Justice Sonak.

He went on to say, “And here lies the great responsibility on a great bar. It is a crime to remain silent when there is a duty to speak. In the end, our institution, which we deeply love and respect, will not remember the insults or even the berating of our enemies. But it will be sad and difficult for our institution to forget and forgive the silence of the bar, whose members are its legitimate guards and guardians.”

Justice Sonak’s career

Justice Sonak, who is the second senior-most puisne judge at the Bombay HC, was born on November 28, 1964. After completing his schol education and LLB from MS College of Law at Panaji in Goa, he enrolled as an advocate in 1988 and practiced at Panaji (Goa) bench of the Bombay HC and dealt with civil, constitutional, labour, service, environmental along with tax-related matters.

He also worked as a special counsel of the state government and statutory corporations before he was elevated as Additional Judge on June 21, 2013. Working as a senior-most administrative judge at the HC bench in Goa, he drew attention for publicly registering a living will and pledging his organs to create awareness on end-of-life planning.

Among several decisions, Justice Sonak had initiated a suo motu case based on incident of alleged assault on a lawyer by constables of Porvorim police station. He also upheld constitutional validity of Goa’s Green Cess Act, which enables the state government to collect cess on the utilisation of pollution causing hazardous products and uses it to reduce the effects of carbon footprint in the state.

In July, last year, Justice Sonak led bench noted that while the Mumbai’s development march cannot be halted, “it cannot run roughshod over concerns for the preservation and maintenance of historic or heritage structures.” The judge observed this while disposing of plea by trustees of the over 100-year-old J N Petit Institute’s heritage building in the Fort area that raised apprehensions of damage due to works for the Metro Line-3 project.