"I am a person in my own right", retorted senior advocate Indira Jaising while taking strong exception to Attorney General K K Venugopal's comment in the Supreme Court on Thursday that she be referred to as the wife of senior counsel Anand Grover.
The incident occurred before a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha when Grover told the court that he was appearing for Jaising, who has filed an application seeking to intervene in the contempt petition filed by the Attorney General against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
Justice Mishra asked Grover as to whom he was representing in the matter.
When Grover said, "Ms Jaising", Justice Mishra asked, "Not Indira Jaising?"
At this juncture, Venugopal who was present in the court, said: "He (Grover) should say (he is appearing) for his wife."
Minutes later however, she said: "I am sorry that I lost my temper Mr Attorney. We identify as individual lawyers. We are not to be identified as somebody's spouse or somebody's wife or husband. We are maintaining our individuality. Hence, we chose not to change our names."