Shun Chetty, who was struck off the roll of attorneys in 1980 for his political affiliations, was posthumously reinstated following a ruling in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.
Chetty acted for many members of the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) during the 1970s, according to the law firm Bowman Gilfillan, which acted for him on a pro bono basis from the time he went into exile in 1979.
”He was the instructing attorney in what became known as the black consciousness trial held in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria from 1975 to 1977 in which the leadership of the BCM was charged with numerous counts under the Terrorism Act.
”He was also the instructing attorney in the major trial to emerge as a result of the 1976 riots in Soweto and he acted in numerous inquests into the deaths in custody of various political detainees, including the inquest into the death of Steven Biko in 1977.”
According to Bowman Gilfillan, Chetty said he fled South Africa ”because of the ever-increasing difficulties that I believed the security police were imposing on me and their threats on my life”.
”I took the decision that for my own safety and the safety of my wife I had to leave South Africa,” he said.
The statement said that because it had been difficult for Chetty to instruct the firm timeously from exile, he was struck off the roll of attorneys without opposing the Law Society’s application.
”In striking him off, the court relied only on the fifth ground of complaint levelled against him by the Law Society — that he had not kept proper books of account and had deliberately misappropriated trust monies.
”During 1982 an application for rescission of this decision was dismissed on the basis that Chetty had put himself beyond the reach of the law by fleeing the country and therefore could not claim the protection of the court.”
In November 1994, the Appellate Division heard an appeal against that judgement, which it refused on the grounds that Chetty had failed to satisfy the court about the reasons for his failure to oppose the application and not on the basis that he was unable to demonstrate any prospects of success on the merits.
”Of particular note was the court’s finding that although Chetty had failed to keep proper books of account, ‘there was in the final result no misappropriation of trust funds by him’.
”In his application Chetty had explained in detail that the reason for his failure to keep proper books was associated with the political nature of his practice at that time.”
The Bowman Gilfillan statement said that when Chetty returned to South Africa in 1999, he instructed the firm to apply for his reinstatement on the roll of attorneys. ”The [Law] Society concluded that it would not oppose Chetty’s application for reinstatement.”
However, Chetty died in May 2000, before he could bring the application.
”Three High Court judges unanimously agreed to reinstate Shun Chetty with the full support of the Law Society, finally giving this great lawyer the honour he deserves.” — Sapa