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16-year chambers waitlist drives Deepak Khosla to park chambers-bus outside of court

Khosla: Getting busy
Khosla: Getting busy

A luxury midi bus accommodating up to five lawyers and three staff could be seen stationed in the Delhi high court parking lot before August, if advocate Deepak Khosla’s plans for using it as a substitute for chambers in the high court see the light of day.

53-year-old Khosla, who graduated and enrolled as a lawyer last year after life as a businessman and having filed a string of writ petitions, said he was on a 16-year waitlist for chambers in the Delhi high court.

“Getting a chamber at the Delhi HC is marginally less tougher than getting a membership at the Golf Club! I got the latter a fortnight ago, after applying in 1982,” he told Legally India via email. “The Hon'ble Delhi High Court wouldn’t give me a chamber till 2030. Which is when I’ll be 70 and yodelling in Greek.”

“So, I’m getting myself an office. [It is] not yet ready. [It is] being ordered in the next couple of days [and] will take about 3 months for delivery. [It will cost] around [Rs] 40 lakhs. [It will be] furnished, equipped.”

He said he would finalise the order for the bus in several days. [Update: The bus will cost around Rs 90 lakh plus taxes, according to Khosla, and will be delivered by July-end]

Banishing the seniors

Khosla said that nothing in the Advocates Act 1961, the Bar Council of India Rules, the Delhi High Court rules, civil or criminal procedure or the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 prevented him for parking a luxury bus-office in the Delhi HC’s parking spaces.

Khosla said that up to eight, including himself, juniors and assistants, would work from the bus, which would amount to less space per lawyer and be greener than a parking space being reserved for a single-driver car.

How it could look
How it could look

Khosla added: “The Delhi HC’s just spent Rs 252 crore on an automated underground parking lot, whose parking tariff is lowest for fresh lawyers, and highest for senior advocates. And it’s running into huge losses. So, a writ that demands – in public interest, of course - that all senior advocates’ cars should be denied stickers for parking in the open air parking lot, and should be confined only to the underground lot, to shore up the finances of the parking lot [will help create space for the bus in the parking lot].”

“Besides, their cars are bigger than cars of junior advocates, so they should be denied space in a crowded lot unless three senior advocates are sharing the same car – a senior car pool. That should free up a lot of space from all those Benzes, Beamers, and what have you, and off they go: whoosh. Underground.”

Office specs

In emails between Khosla and luxury automobile designer Dilip Chhabria’s office, that was apparently leaked to Legally India and a host of Delhi HC advocates and journalists, Khosla specified the following requirements for the bus-office’s design, which would be based around the Isuzu minibus “platform”, which was reviewed by an Indian car magazine last year.

“It should have, apart from the usual luxurious state-of-the-art amenities, the following elements of functionality:

1. Space for simultaneous seating of “boss” and 3 visitors for boss, and 4 co-workers (apart from driver). Co-workers means to work at mini work stations.
2. Library storage space for around 100 books, usual height / length, each 3” thick.
3. Cabling for internet, WiFi, printers, copiers, canners, faxes.
4. Recessed storage for discreet mounting of these office gadgets.
5. Storage for paper, files etc.
6. Capable of being air-conditioned even when parked for, say, 4 hours.
7. Toilet.
8. All dark glasses, so no one from outside can p eep in (legal ?).
9. LCD TV, to be connected to the internet.
10. I hate speed breakers, pot holes, etc. So, apart from the usual shock-absorbers in the vehicle, I want additional “telescopic springs” or similar under all (but especially the boss’s) seat, so that my reading is relatively undisturbed by the road.
11. As the bus may be parked in the Court’s parking lot from time to time, and with the engine running (for power to run office equipments, for AC, etc). I want the exhausts pointing up into the sky, going up along the side of the body (recessed, of course). So that no one immediately around can complain of fumes ; pollution.
12. And the engine when its running while still, should be soundless (relatively so). In other words, no one should know, neither from fumes, nor from noise, that the engine is running.
13. As I want the smoothest ride possible, let the chair of the boss be in the middle of the bus, facing forward, so that the effect of oscillations on speed breakers / potholes is minimised.
14. So, his 3 visitors would sit in front of him.
15. And the 4 co-workers behind him. Behind a retractable vanity screen.
16. Therefore, entrance for the boss would be from the front / front-side, and for the 4 co-workers, from the back.
17. Battery back-up : the bus needs to be equipped with as 3 KW UPS system, so that so long as the AC is not required, and only the office equipments are to be operated, the bus‘s engine does not need to be started.
18. There needs to be RJ 45 cabling for the office equipments in a LAN, a hub with, say 10 outlets.”

Feeling ‘loser’ish

The advocate who leaked the emails between Khosla and Chhabria’s office, claimed that the section of the bar that has come to know of Khosla’s plan is “up in arms” about it, because, they “have put up with small and confined cabins and rooms without making any noise - for decades. If this new lawyer puts up a spacious and attractive luxury bus outside the Court in protest, [they] will look like 'losers' and 'unimaginative' people”.

The advocate claimed that the protesting bar wants Khosla to either get his own cabin or entertain clients in the court canteen. “No luxury bus under any circumstance. At no cost this will be permitted,’ he wrote.

“Nothing like yet another battle. Plus, the HC’s got lousy loos,” commented Khosla.

In August Legally India profiled Khosla who has filed several writs serially at the Delhi high court, and has fought tenaciously for being allowed to record court proceedings.

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