Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Mr. Edgar Fernandes today adjourned to 21st  Oct the further cross examination of Goa’s Advocate General Mr. Subodh Kantak by Adv. Aires Rodrigues.

Justice N.A Britto of the Bombay High Court at Goa had directed the Advocate General to appear before the JMFC today 18th September at 10 am for further cross examination in the defamation case filed by him against Adv. Aires Rodrigues but Adv. V. A. Lawande representing the Advocate General today submitted before the JMFC that Mr. Subodh Kantak was busy in the High Court.

Strongly objecting to the adjournment sought, Adv. Rodrigues submitted to the JMFC that Mr. Subodh Kantak is no VIP litigant and should be present on dates fixed by the Court and could seek no special treatment just because he was the Advocate General.

Taking strong exception to the manner in which Mr. Subodh Kantak has been seeking adjournments feigning stomach pain, Adv. Rodrigues submitted to JMFC Mr. Edgar Fernandes that Mr. Subodh Kantak be directed to produce a medical certificate every time he seeks adjournment on health grounds.  Adv. Rodrigues told the JMFC that if Mr. Subodh Kantak was so busy and unable to pursue the case he himself has filed that the matter be adjourned sine-die and taken up as and when  Mr. Subodh Kantak is relieved from the post of Advocate General.

Adv. Rodrigues also told the JMFC that he would cross examine Mr. Subodh Kantak extensively on his character, conduct and competence as Advocate General of Goa.

In may be recalled that in a major setback to Goa’s Advocate General, the Bombay High Court at Goa on August 28th allowed the Criminal Writ Petition filed by social activist Adv. Aires Rodrigues against Goa’s Advocate General Mr. Subodh Kantak and quashed and set aside the orders of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Mr. Edgar Fernandes who had disallowed Adv. Aires Rodrigues from asking the Advocate General questions on his character and competence.

Subodh Kantak who happens to be India’s first Advocate General to file a defamation case against an Advocate is also the country’s only Advocate General to have had to face High Court proceedings filed by an advocate. It is also for the first time that a High Court has had to pass a judgment in a criminal writ petition against an Advocate General.

After Adv. Aires Rodrigues highlighted the exorbitant fees being paid to the Advocate General of Goa by the government, Mr. Subodh Kantak initiated defamation proceedings against Adv. Rodrigues before the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Panaji and has also sought Rs 15 crores by way of compensation from Adv. Rodrigues.

It has been Adv. Rodrigues’s contention that the Advocate General being a constitutional functionary is a public official and that acts of public officials in discharge of their official duties is  open to public scrutiny and criticism not amounting to defamation.